\
JOAA- OF AUC.
YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORY
FRANCE
BY
CHARLOTTE M. YO:S'GE,
Author of "The Heir of Redcltffe," "Book of Golden
Deeds," "Young Folks' History of
Rome," &c.
BOSTON :
ESTES & LAURIAT,
301 WASHINGTON STREET.
COPYRIGHT BY
D. LOTHROP & CO.
1879.
Army HsL^y Oioli
Aug. i3A929
PREFACE.
THESE Stories on the History of France are meant for
children peril aps a year older than those on the History
of England. They try to pnt such facts as need most to be
remembered in a comprehensible form, and to attach some
real characteristic to each reign; though, in later political
history, it is difficult to translate the leading ideas into any-
thing that can enter ail intellect of seven or eight j^ears old.
The gentleman who, some time ago, recommended teaching
history backwards from onr own time, could never have prac-
tically tried how much harder it is to make la Charte or the
Reform. Bill interesting to the childish mind, than how King
Kobert fed the beggars or William Rufus was killed by an
arrow. Early history is generally personal, and thus can be
far more easily recollected than that which concerns the mul-
titude, who are indeed everything to the philanthropist, but
are nothing to the child. Even the popular fairy tale has its
princes and princesses, and the wonder tale of history can only
be carried on in the infant imagination by the like dramatis
personod-
CHARLOTTE M. YOIS^GE.
CONTENTS.
« « » ^ >
1. —
2.—
3.—
4. —
5.—
6. —
7.—
8.—
9.—
10. —
11.—
The Old Kelts. B.C. 150 .
The Koinau Conquest. B.C. 67. a.d. 79
The Conversion of Gaul. 100 --400
The Frank Kingdom. 450 — 533
The Long-haired Kings. 533—681 .
Carl of the Hammer. 681
Carl the Great. 768 .
The Carlings. 814—887 .
The Counts of Paris. 887—987
Hugh Capet. 987—997 .
Robert the Pious. 997—1031
Henry I. 1031—1060
Philip I. 1060—1108
Louis VI. Le Gros. 1108—1137 .
Louis YII. The Young. 1137—1180
Philip n., Augustus. 1180—1223 .
The Albigenses. 1190
Louis YIII., The Lion. 1223— 122G
■St. Louis IX. 1226 ....
Philip III., The Hardy. 1271—1284
Philip lY., The Fair. 1284—1314 .
Louis X., Hutin. 1314—1316
Philip Y., Le L0112:. 1.316—1322
Charles lY., Le Bel. 1322
Philip YL 1350
19. —John. 1350—1364 ....
12.
13.
14.
15.—
16.—
17.—
18.—
108
VI.
CONTENTS.
CHAP.
20.-
21.-
22.-
23.-
24.-
25. -
26.-
27.-
28.-
29.-
30.-
31.-
32.-
33. -
34-
35.-
3G.-
37.-
38.-
39.-
40.-
41.-
42.-
4.3.-
44.-
45.-
46.-
47.-
48.-
• Charles V. 1364—1380
-Charles VI. 1380—1396 .
■ Burgundians and Armagnacs. 1415 — 1422
-Charles YIL 1422—1461 .
■Louis XL 1461—1483
-Charles VIIL 1483-1498.
- Louis XIL 1498—1515 .
- Francis 1. Youth. 1515 — 1526 .
- Francis I. Middle Age. 1526—1547
-Henry 11. 1547—1559
- Francis II. 1559 — 1560
Charles IX. 1560—1572 ,
- Charles IX. 1572—1574 .
-Henry III. 1574
-Henry I Y. 1589—1610
- Louis XIIL 1610—1643 .
-Louis XIY. Youth. 1643—1661
- Louis XIY. Middle Age. 1661—1688
- Louis XIY. Old Age. 1688—1715
-Louis XY. 1715 — 1774
- Louis XYI. 1774—1793 .
- The Great French Revolution. 1792—1796
- Xapoleon I. 1796—1814 .
-Louis XYIIL 1814—1824.
-Charles X. 1824—1830
-Louis Philippe. 1830—1848
-The Republic. 1848—1852
- The Second Empire. 1852—1870
The Siege of Paris. 1870—1871
-The Communists. 1871.
PAGE.
209
218
227
237
246
257
268
276
289
300
\ 210
322
230
340
352
, 364
, 374
. 383
392
, 402
411
, 420
. 429
, 437
, 443
. 452
. 458
. 465
. 474
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS,
-♦♦♦-
Feontispiece.
Keltic Tribe
The Gauls in Rome
Mounted Gauls .
Roman Army in Gaul .
Yercingetorix surrenders to Csesar
Conversion of Gaul
Druid Sacrifice
Huns at Chalons
Death of Hlodimir's Children
The Meerwings
Arabs had Decam^ped .
Charlemagne at the Head of his Army
Baptism of Saxons by Charlemagne
Death of Roland
School of the Palace .
Barks of Northmen
" He Shed Tears at the Sight "
Northmen before Paris
Count Eudes entering Paris
Knights and Peasants .
Coronation of Hugh Capet
The Accolades .
Crusaders' March
Robert and The Poor .
(vU.)
11
15
19
22
27
32
39
45
51
54
65
70
71
75
79
84
87
91
95
101
109
115
118
121
Vlll.
List of Illustrations.
" God willeth it "
The Leaders of the First Crusade
Louis tlie Fat on an Expedition
Crusaders' Return
Capture of Acre
The Battle of Muret .
Death of Louis ....
Colonna Striking the Pope
Edward IIL doing Homage
" Bade tliem look out at the Sea "
''This Way, Father" .
Murder of the Marshals . .
The Attack on Marcel .
Laying the Keys on Du Gueslin's Bier
" Thou art Betrayed "
The Night before the Battle of Agincourt
Murder of the Duke of Burgundy .
Joan of Arc ....
Joan of Arc examined in Prison
Louis XL ....
Interview of Louis XL and Charles the Bold
Charles YIII. Crossing the x4.1ps
Meeting of Charles and Anne of Brittany
Charles YIII
Chevalier Bayard going to the Wars
Bayard knighting Francis I. .
Francis I. at Marignano
Death of Bayard
Capture of Francis I. .
Breaking of the Statue of the Virgin Mary
Duke of Orleans and Charles V.
Guise at Metz ....
List of Illustrations.
IX.
Death of Henry II.
Francis 11. and Mary Stuart
Death of Francis II.
Massacre of St. Bartholomew
Henry III. and Favorites
Murder of G-uise
Henry IV. at Ivry
Henry lY. and Ministers
Henry becomes a Catholic
Coucini and Mary de Medicis.
Louis YIII. and Albert de Luy
Richelieu and Father Joseph
King and Cardinal
Death of Cardinal Mazarin
Louis XIV. in Cabinet
Theatrical Representation
Death of Turenne
Louis XIV. presenting King
Death of Louis XIV. .
Maria Leczinska
Battle of Fontenoy
French Chateaii
Louis XVI.
Marat
Tuileries
Battle of Waterloo
Guizot
Versailles
nes
PAGE.
307
311
315
325
331
335
341
345
347
353
357
361
364
369
371
374
377
383
389
393
397
402
403
413
423
431
447
469
YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORY OF FRANOR
CHAPTER I.
THE OLD KELTS.
B.C. 150.
I BEGAN the " History of England " with Julius
Caesar's landing in Britain, and did not try to
tell you who the people were whom he found
there, for I thought it would puzzle you ; but you
are a little older now, and can understand rather
more.
11
12 Young Folks'' History of France.
You must learn that in the old times, before
people wrote down histories, Europe was over-
spread by a great people, whom it is convenient to
call altogether the Kelts — fierce, bold, warrior
people, who kept together in large families or
clans, all nearly related, and each clan with a chief.
The clans joined together and formed tribes, and
the cleverest chief of the clans would lead the rest.
They spoke a language nearly alike — the language
which has named a great many rivers and hills. I
will tell 3^ou a few. Ben or Pen means a hill. So
we see that the Ap-pen-nine mountains were named
by the Kelts. Again, Avon is a river. You know
we have several Avons. Ren Avon meant the
running river, and Rhine and Rhone are both the
same word, differently pronounced. Sen Avon
was the slow river — the Seine and Saone ; and
Garr Avon was the swift river — the Garonne.
There were two great varieties of Kelts — the Gael
and the Kymry (you should call this word Ke wmri) .
The Gael were the tallest, largest, wildest, and
fiercest, but they were not so clever as the black-
eyed little K3aury. The Kymry seem to have
been the people who had the Druid priests, who
lived in groves of oak, and cut down mistletoe
with golden knives ; and most likely they set up
The Old Kelts. 13
the wonderful circles of huge stones which seem to
have been meant to worship in ; at least, wherever
those stones are the Kymry have been. But we
know little about them, as all their knowledge was
in verse, which the Druids and bards taug^ht one
another by word of mouth, and which was never
written down. All we do know is from their
neighbors the Greeks and Romans, who thought
them very savage, and were very much afraid of
them, when every now and then a tribe set out on
a robbing expedition into the lands to the south.
When the Kelts did thus come, it was generally
because they were driven from their own homes.
There were a still fiercer, stronger set of people
behind them, coming from the east to the west;
and when the Kelts found that they could not hold
their own against these people, they put their
wives and children into wagons, made of wood or
wicker work, collected their oxen, sheep, and goats,
called their great shaggy hounds, and set forth to
find new homes. The men had long streaming
hair and beards, and wore loose trousers of woollen,
woven and dyed in checks by the women — tartan
plaids, in fact. The chiefs always had gold collars
round their necks, and they used round wicker
shields, long spears, and heavy swords, and they
14 Young Folks' History of France.
were yery terrible enemies. When tlie country
was free to the west, they went on thither, and
generally settled down in a wood near a river,
closing in their town with a wall of trunks of trees
and banks of earth, and setting up their hovels
within of stone or wood.
But if other clans whom they could not beat
were to the west of them, they would turn to the
south into Greece or Italy, and do great damage
there. One set of them, in very old times, even
managed to make a home in the middle of Asia
Minor, and it was to their descendants that St.
Paul wrote his Epistle to the Galatians. Another
great troop, under a very mighty Bran, or chief,
who, in Latin, is called Brennus, even broke into
the great city of Rome itself. All the women and
children of Rome had been sent away, and only a
few brave men remained in the strong place called
the Capitol, on the top of the steepest hill. There
they stayed for seven months, while the Bran and
his Gauls kept the city, drank up the wine in the
long narrow jars, and drove in the pale-colored,
long:-horned oxen from the meadow land round.
The Bran never did get into the Capitol, but the
Romans were obliged to pay him a great sum of
money before he would go away. However, this
THE GAULS IK HOME.
The Old Kelts. 17
belongs to the history of Rome, and I only mean
further to sa}^, that the tribe who came \A'ith him
staj^ed seventeen years in the middle parts of Italy
before they were entirely beaten. When the Kelts
were beaten and saw there was no hope, they
generally came within the enclosure they had made
with their wagons, and slew their wives and chil-
dren, set fire to everything, and then killed them-
selves, that they might not be slaves. All the
north part of Ital}" beyond the River Po was filled
with Kelts, and there were many more of them
beyond the Alps. So it came about that from the
word Gael the Romans called the north of Italy
Gallia Cis-Alpina — Gauls on this side the Alps;
and the country westward Gallia Trans-Alpina, or
Gaul be3^ond the Alps, and all the people there
were known as Gauls, whether they were Gael or
Kymry.
Now, far up in Gaul, in tlie high ground that
divides the rivers Loire, kSaone, and Rhine, there
were rocks full of metal, tin, copper, and some-
times a little silver. The clever sailors and mer-
chants called Phoenicians found these out, and
taught the Gauls to work the mines, and send the
metals in boats down the Rhone to the Mediterra-
nean sea. There is a beautiful bay where Gaul
18 Youny Folks'^ History of France.
touches the Mediterranean, and not only the Phoe-
nicians found it out, l^ut the Greeks. They came
to live there, and built the cities of Marseilles,
Nice, Antibes, and several more. Lovely cities
the Greeks always built, with marble temples to
their gods, pillars standing on steps, and gardens
with statues in them, and theatres for seeing plays
acted in the open air. Inside these towns and
close round them everything was beautiful; but
the Gauls who lived near learnt some Greek ways,
and were getting tamed. They coined money,
wrote in Greek letters, and bought and sold with
the Greeks ; but their wilder brethren beyond did
not a2:)prove of this, and whenever they could catch
a Greek on his journey would kill him, rob him,
or make him prisoner. Sometimes, indeed, they
threatened to rob the cities, and the Greeks begged
the Romans to protect them. So the Romans sent
an officer and an army, who built two new towns,
Aix and Narbonne, and made war on the Gauls,
who tried to hinder him. Then a messenger was
sent to the Roman camp. He was an immensely
tall man, with a collar and bracelets of gold, and
beside him came a bard singing the praises of his
clan, the Arverni. There were man}^ other attend-
ants ; but his chief guards were a pack of immense
MOUNTKD (^.AIM.S.
The Old Kelts, 21
hounds, wliicli came pacing after liim in ranks like
soldiers. He bade the Romans, in the name of his
chief Bituitus, to leave the country, and cease to
harm the Gauls. The Roman General turned his
back and would not listen ; so the messenger went
back in anger, and the Arverni prepared for battle.
When Bituitus saw the Roman army he thought it
so small that he said, '' This handfid of men will
hardly furnish food for my dogs." He was not
beaten in the battle, but jnst after it he was made
prisoner, and sent to Italy, where he was kept a
captive all the rest of his life, while his son was
brought up in Roman learning and habits, and
then sent home to rule his clan, and teach them to
be friends with Rome. This was about one hun-
dred and fifty years before the coming of our
Blessed Lord.
CHAPTER ir.
THE KOMAN CONQUEST.
B.C. (i7 — A.D. 79.
THE Romans called the country tliey had taken
for themselves in Gaul the Province, and
Provence has alw^ays continued to be its name.
They filled it with colonies. A colony was a city
built by Romans, generally old soldiers, who
received a grant of land if they would defend it.
22
The Roman Conquest. 23
The first thing they did was to set up an altar.
Then they dug trenches the shape of their intended
city, marked out streets, and made little flat bricks,
everywhere after one pattern, with which the\'
built a temple, houses (each standing round a
paved court), a theatre, and public baths, with
causeways as straight as an arrow joining tlie cities
together. Each town had two magistrates elected
every year, and a governor lived at the chief town
with a legion of the army to keep the country
round in order.
When the Romans once began in this way, they
always ended by gaining the whole country in
time. They took nearly a hundred j^ears to gain
Gaul. First there came a terrible inroad of some
wilder Kymry, whom the Romans called Cimbri,
from the west, with some Teutons, of that fiercer
German race I told you of. They broke into Gaul,
and defeated a great Roman army; and there was
ten years' fighting v/ith them before the stout old
Roman, Caius Marius, beat them in a great battle
near Aix. All the men were killed in battle, and
the women killed their children and themselves
rather than fall into Roman hands. That was
B.C. 103; and Julius Csesar, the same who first
came to Britain, was nephew to JMarius.
24 Young Folks' History of France.
He did not conquer Britain, but he did really
conquer Gaul. It would only confuse and puzzle
you now to tell you how it was done ; but by this
time many of the Gaulish tribes had come to be
friendly with the Romans and ask their help.
Some wanted help because they were quarrelling
with other tribes, and others because the Germans
behind them had squeezed a great tribe of Kymry
out of the Alps, and they wanted to come down
and make a settlement in Gaul. Julius Caesar
made short work of beating these new-comers, and
he beat the Germans who were also trying to get
into Gaul. Then he expected all the Gauls to
submit to him — not only those who lived round
the Province, and had always been friendly to
Rome, but all the free ones in the north. He was
one of the most w^onderful soldiers who ever lived.
He gained first, all the east side. He subdued
the Belgse, who lived between the Alps and the
sea, all the Armoricans along the north, and then
the still wilder people on the coast towards the
Atlantic ocean.
But while he was away in the north, the Gaulish
chiefs in the south agreed that they would make
one great attempt to set their country free from
the enemy. They resolved all to rise at once, and
The Roman Conquest, 25
put themselves under the command of the brave
young mountain chief of the Arverni, from whom'
Auvergne was named. The Romans called his
name Vercingetorix ; and as it reall}^ was even
longer and harder to speak than this word, we will
call him so. He was not a wild shaggy savage like
Bituitus, but a graceful, spirited chief, who had
been trained to Roman manners, and knew their
ways of fighting. All in one night the Gauls rose.
Men stood on the hill-tops, and shouted from clan
to clan to rise up in arms. It was the depth of
winter, and Caesar was away resting in Italy ; but
back he came on the first tidings, and led his men
over six feet of snow, taking every Gallic town by
the way.
Vercingetorix saw that the wisest thing for the
Gauls to do would be to burn and lay waste the
land themselves, so that the Romans might find
nothing to eat. "It was sad," he said, " to see
burning houses, but worse to have Avife and chil-
dren led into captivity." One city, that now
called Bourges, was left ; the inhabitants beseeched
him on their knees to spare it ; and it seemed to
be safe, for there was a river on one side and a bog
on all the rest, with only one narrow road across.
But in twenty-five days Caisar made his way in.
26 Young Folks' History of France.
and slew all he found there ; and then he followed
Vercmgetorix to his own hills of Auvergne, and
fought a battle, the only defeat the great Roman
captain ever met with : indeed, he was obliged to
retreat from the face of the brave Arverni. They
followed him again, and fought another battle, in
which he was in great danger, and was forced even
to leave his sword in the hands of the Gauls, who
hung it up in a temple in thanksgiving to their
gods. But the Gauls were not so steady as they
were brave ; they fled, and all Vercingetorix could
do was to lead them to a great camp under the hill
of Alesia. He sent horsemen to rouse the rest of
Gaul, and shut himself up in a great enclosure
with his men. Csesar and the Romans came and
made another enclosure outside, eleven miles round,
so that no help, no food could come to them, and
they had only provisions for thirty days. Their
friends outside did try to break through to them,
but in vain ; they were beaten off; and then brave
Vercingetorix offered to give himself up to the
Romans, provided the lives of the rest of the Gauls
were spared. Csesar gave his word that this should
be done. Accordingly, at the appointed hour the
gates of the Gallic camp opened. Out came Ver-
cingetorix in his richest armor, mounted on his
The Roman Conquest. 29
finest steed. He galloped about, wheeled round
once, then drawing np suddenly before Caesar's
seat, sprang to the ground, and laid his sword at
the victor's feet. C'sesar was not touched. He
l^ept a cold, stern face ; ordered the gallant chief
into captivity, and kept him for six years, while
finishing other conquests, and then took him to
Rome, to walk in chains behind the car in which
the victorious general entered in triumph, with all
the standards taken from the Gauls displayed ;
and then, with the other captives, this noble war-
rior was put to death in the dark vaults under the
hill of the Capitol.
With Vercingetorix ended the freedom of Gaul.
The Romans took possession of all the country,
and made the cities like their own. The old clans
were broken up. The fighting men were enlisted
in the Roman army, and sent to fight as far away
as possible from home, and the chiefs thought it an
honor to be enrolled as Roman citizens ; they wore
the Roman tunic and toga, spoke and wrote Latin,
and, except among the Kymry of the far north-
west, the old Gaulish tongue was forgotten. Very
grand temples and amphitheatres still remain in
the Province of Roman building, especially at
Nismes, Aries, and Autun ; and a huge acqueduct,
30 Young Folks'^' History of France.
%
called the Pont clu Gard, still stands across a
valley near Nismes, with 600 feet of three tier of
arcades, altogether 160 feet high. Roads made as
only Romans made them crossed hither and thither
throughout the country, and, except in the wilder
and more distant parts, to live in Gaul was very
like living in Home.
After Julius Caesar, the Romans had Emperors
at the head of their state, and some of these were
verv fond of Gaul. But when the first twelve
who had some connection with Julius were all
dead, a Gaul named Julius Sabinus rose up and
called himself Emperor. The real Emperor, chosen
at Rome, named Vespasian, soon came and over-
threw his cause, and hunted him to his country
house. Flames burst out of it, and it was declared
that Sabinus had burnt himself there. But no ;
he was safely hidden in a cave in the woods. No
one knew of it but his wife Eponina and one trusty
slave, and there they lived together for nine years,
and had two little sons. Eponina twice left him to
go to Rome to consult her friends Avhether they
could obtain a pardon for her husband; but Ves-
pasian was a stern man, and they saw no hope, so
she went back disappointed ; and the second time
she was watclied and followed, and Sabinus was
The Roman ConquesL 31
found. He was taken and chained, and carried to
Rome, and she and her two boys came with him.
She knelt before the Emperor, and besought his
pardon, saying that here were two more to plead
for their father. Tears came into Vespasian's eyes,
but he would not forgive, and the husband and
wife were both sentenced to die. The last thing
Eponina said before his judgment-seat was, that it
was better to die together than to be alive as such
an Emperor. Her two boys were taken care of,
and one of them lived long after in Greece, as far
away from his home as possible.
CHAPTER III.
THE CONVERSION OF GAUL.
A.I). 100-400.
GAUL could not be free in her own way, but
the truth that maketh free was come to her.
The Druids, though their worship was cruel, had
better notions of the true God than the Romans
with their multitude of idols, and when they heard
more of the truth, many of them gladly embraced
32
The Conversion of Gaul. ■ 33
it. The Province was so near Rome that very
soon after the Apostles had reached the great city,
they sent on to GaiiL The people in Provence
believe tliat Lazarus and his two sisters came
thither, but this is not likely. However, the fitst
Bishop of Aries was Trophimus, and we may quite
believe him to have been the Ephesian who was
with St. Paul in liis third journey, and was at
Jernsalem with him when he was made prisoner.
Trophimus brought a service-book with him very
like the one that St. John the Evano^elist had
drawn up for the Churches of Asia.
It was to Vienne, one of these Roman cities,
that Pontins Pilate had been banished for his
cruelt3^ In this town and in the larger one at
Lyons there were many Christians, and their bishop
was Pothinus, who had been instructed by St.
John. It was many years before the Gallic Chris-
tians suffered au}^ danger for their faith, not till
the year 177, when Pothinus was full ninety years
old.
Then, under the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, a
governor was sent to the Province who was resolved
to put an end to Christianity. The difficulty was
that there were no crimes of wliich to accuse tlie
Christians. So he caused several slaves to be
34 Young Folks' History of France.
seized and put to torture, while they were asked
questions. There were two young girls among
them, Blandina and Biblis. Blandina was a weak,
delicate maiden, but whatever pain they gave her,
she still said, "I am a Christian, and no evil is
done among us." Biblis, however, in her fright
^and agony, said " Yes " to all her tormentors asked,
and accused the Christians of killing babies, eating
human flesh, and all sorts of horrible things.
Afterwards she was shocked at herself, declared
there was not a word of truth in what she had
said, and bore fresh and worse torture bravely.
The Christians were seized. The old bishop was
dragged through the streets, and so pelted and ill-
treated that after a few days he died in prison.
The others were for fifteen days brought out before
all the people in the amphitheatre, while every
torture that could be thought of was tried upon
them. All were brave, but Blandina was the
bravest of all. She did not seem to feel when she
was put to sit on a red hot iron chair, but encour-
aged her young brother through all. At last she
was put into a net and tossed by a bull, and then,
being found to be still alive, her throat was pierced,
everyone declaring that never had woman endured
so much. The persecution did not last much
The Conversion of Craul. 35
longer after this, and the bones of the martyrs
were collected and buried, and a church built over
them, the same, though of course much altered,
which is now the Cathedral of Lyons.
Instead of the martyred Pothinus, the new bishop
was Irenseus, a holy man who left so many writings
that he is counted as. one of the Fathers of the
Church. A] most all the townsmen of Lyons became
Christians under his wise persuasion and good
example, but the rough people in the country were
much less easily reached. Lideed, the word pagan,
which now means a heathen, was only the old
Latin word for a peasant or villager. In the year
202, the Emperor Severus, who had himself been
born at Lyons, put out an edict against the Chris-
tians. The fierce Gauls in the adjoiniug country
hearing of it, broke furiously into the city, and
slaughtered every Christian they laid hands upon,
St. Irengeus among them. There is an old mosaic
]3avement in a church at Lyons where the inscrip-
tion declares that nineteen thousand died in this
massacre, but it can hardly be believed that the
numbers were so large.
The northerly parts of Gaul were not yet con-
verted, and a bishop named Dionysius was sent to
teach a tribe called the Parisii, whose chief city
36 Young Folks'" History of France,
was Lutetia, on the banks of the Seine. He was
taken in the year 272, and was beheaded just out-
side the walls on a hill which is still known as
Mont Martre, the martyr's mount, and his name,
cut short into St. Denys, became one of the most
famous in all France.
The three Keltic provinces, Gaul, Spain, and
Britain, used to be put together under one governor,
and the brave, kindly Constantius ruled over them,
and hindered persecution as much as he could.
His son Constantine was also much loved, and it
was while marching to Italy with an army, in
which were many Gauls, to obtain the empire, that
Constantine saw the vision of a bright cross in the
sky, surrounded by the words, "In this sign thou
shalt conquer." He did conquer, and did confess
himself a Christian two years later, and under him
the Church of Gaul flourished. Gallic bishops
were at the great council of Nicea, in Asia Minor,
when the Nicene creed was drawn up, and many
beautiful hymns for Christian Avorship were written
in Gaul.
After Constantine's death, his son Constantius
fostered tlie false doctrine that the Nicene creed
contradicted. He lived at Constantinople, and
dressed and lived like an Eastern prince, and the
The Conversion of Graul. 37
Gauls were growing discontented ; more especially
as tlie Franks — a terrible tribe of tlieir Teuton
enemies to the east — were trj'ing to break into
their lands. A young cousin of Constantius, named
Julian, was sent to fight with them. He fixed his
chief abode in a little island in the middle of the
River Seine, at Lutetia, among his dear Parisii, as
he called the tribe around, and thence he came out
to drive back the Franks whenever they tried to
attack the Gauls. He was a very brave, able man,
but he had seen so much selfishness among the
Christians in Rome and Constantinople, that he
fancied their faults arose from their faith; and
tried to be an old heathen again as soon as Con-
stantius was dead, and he became emperor. He
only reigned three years, and then, in the year
863, was killed in a war with the Persians. Very
sad times followed his death. He was the last of
his family, and several emperors rose and fell at
Rome. The governor of Gaul, Maximus, called
himself emperor, and, raising an army in Britain,
defeated the young man who had reigned at Rome
in the jeen 881, and ruled the Keltic j)rovinces for
seven years. He was a brave soldier, and not
wholly a bad man, for he much loved and valued
the great Bishop Martin, of Tours. Martin had
38 Young Folks^ History of France.
been brought up as a soldier, but he was so kind
that once when he saw a shivering beggar he cut
his cloak into two with his sword, and gave the
poor man half. He was then not baptized, but at
eighteen he became altogether a Christian, and
was the pupil of the great Bishop Hilary of PoitierSo
It was in these days that men were first beginniog
to band together to live in toil, poverty, and devo-
tion in monasteries or abbeys, and Martin was the
first person in Gaul to form one, near Poitiers;
but he was called from it to be Bishop of Tours,
and near that city he began another abbey, which
still bears his name, Marmoutiers, or Martin's
Monastery. He and the monks used to go out
from thence to teach the Pagans, who still remained
in the far west, and whom Roman punishment had
never cured of the old Druid ways. These people
could not learn the Latin that all the rest of the
country spoke, but lived on their granite moors as
their forefathers had lived four hundred years
before. However, Martin did what no one else
had ever done : he taught them to become staunch
Christians, though they still remained a people
apart, speaking their own tongue and following
their own customs.
This was the good St. Martin's work while his
DKUin SAOKIFICK.
Tlie Conversion of Graul. 41
friend, the false Emperor Maximiis, was beiiio-
overthrown by the true Emperor Theodosius ; and
much more struggling and fighting was goiiio- on
among the Romans and Gauls, while in the mean-
time the dreadful Eranks were every now and
then bursting into the country from across the
Rhine to plunder and burn and kill and make
slaves.
St. Martin had finished the conversion of Gaul,
just before he died in his monastery at Marmou-
tiers, in the year 400. He died in time to escape
the terrible times that were coming upon all the
Gauls, or rather Romans. F(jr all the southern
and eastern Gauls called themselves Romans, spoke
nothing but Latin, and had entirely forgotten all
thoughts, ways, and manners but those they had
learnt from the Greeks and Romans.
CHAPTER IV.
THE FRANK KINGDOM.
A.D. 450-533.
THAT race of people which had been driving
the Kelts westward for six or seven hundred
years was making a way into Gaul at last ; indeed,
they had been only held back by Roman skill.
These were the race which, as a general name, is
called Teutonic, but which divided into manv
different nations. All were large-limbed, blue-
eyed, and light-haired. They all spoke a language
like rough German, and all had the same religion,
believing in the great warlike gods, Odin, Thor,
and Frey ; worshipping them at stone altars, and
expecting to live with them in the hall of heroes
after death. That is, all so called who were, brave
and who were chosen by the valkyr, or slaughter-
choosing goddesses, to die nobly in battle. Cow-
ards were sent to dwell with Hela, the pale, gloomy
goddess of death.
42
The Frank Kingdom. 43
Of course the different tribes were not exactlv
alike, but tliey all had these features in common.
They had lived for at least five hundred }-ears in
the centre of Europe, now and then attacking their
neighbors, when, being harassed by another fierce race
who came behind them, they made more great efforts.
The chief tribes whose names must be remembered
were the Goths, who conquered Rome and settled
in Spain ; the Longbeards, or Lombards, who spread
over the north of Italy ; the Burgundians (burg
or town livers), who held all the country round
the Alps ; the Swabians and Germans, who stayed
in the middle of Europe ; the Saxons, who dwelt
about the south of the Baltic, and finally conquered
South Britain ; the Northmen, who found a home
in Scandinavia ; and the Franks, who had been
long settled on the rivers Sale, Meuse, and Rhine.
Their name meant Freemen, and the}^ were noted
for usino; an axe called after them. There were
two tribes — tlie Salian, from the River Sale, and
the Ripuarian. They were great horsemen, and
dreadful pillagers, and tlie Salians had a family of
kings, which, like the kings of all the other tribes,
was supposed to descend from Odin. Tlie king
was always of this family, called Meerwings, after
44 Young Folks^ History of France.
Meerwig, the son of Wehrmund, one of tlie first
chiefs.
After tlie death of the great Theodosius, who
had conquered the false Emperor Maximus, there
was no power to keep these Franks back, and tliey
were continually dashing into Ganl, and carrying
off slaves and plunder. Eyen worse was the great
rush that, in the year 450, was made all across
Europe by the Huns, a terrible nation of another
race, whose chief was called Etzel, or Attila, and
who named himself the Scourge of God. In 451,
he invaded Gaul with his army, horrible looking
men, whose faces had been gashed by their savage
parents in their infancy, that they might look more
dreadful. It was worse to fall into their hands
than into those of the Franks, and everywhere
there was terror. At Lutetia there was a great
desire to flee away, but they were persuaded to
remain by the holy woman, Genoveva. She was a
young shepherdess of Nanterre, near Paris, who
had devoted herself to the service of God, and
whose holy life made the people listen to her as a
kind of prophet. And she was right. The Huns
did not come further that Orleans, where the good
Bishop Lupus made the people shut their gates,
and defend their town, until an army, composed of
HUNS AT ('HALO'S.
The Frank Kingdom. 47
Franks, Goths, Biirgundians, Gauls, all under the
Roman General Aetius, attacked the Huns at
Chal6ns-sur-Marne, beat them, and drove tliem
back in 451. Chalons was the last victory won
under the old Roman eagles. There was too much
trouble in Italy for Rome to help any one. In
came the Franks whenever they pleased, and Hil-
perik, the son of Meerwig, came to Lutetia, or
Paris, as it was now called from the tribe round it,
and there he rioted in Julian's old palace. He had
a great respect for Genoveva, heathen though he
was ; and when he came home from ]3lundering,
with crowds of prisoners driven before him, Geno-
veva would go and stand before him, and entreat
for their pardon, and he never could withstand
her, but set them all free. She died at eio-htv-nine
years old, and St. Genevieve, as she was afterwards
called, was honored at Paris as much as St. Denys.
Hilperik's son Avas named Hlodwig, which means
loud or renowned a\ ar, but as the name is harsh,
histories generally name him Clovis. He wanted
to marr}^ a Burgundian maiden named Clothilda
and as she was a Christian, he promised tliat she
should be allowed to pray to her God in the
churches which still stood throughout Gaul. When
her first child was born, she persuaded Clovis to
48 Young Folks'" Sistory of France,
let her have it baptized. It died very soon, and
Clovis fancied it was becau&e her God could not
save it. However, she caused the next child to be
baptized, and when it fell sick she prayed for it,
and it recovered. He began to listen more to
what she said of her God, and when, soon after,
the Germans came with a great army across the
Rhine, and he drew out his Franks to fight with
them at Tolbiac, near Cologne, he was in great
danger in the battle, and he cried aloud, " Christ,
whom Clothilda calls the true God, I have called
on my own gods, and they help me not ! Send
help, and I will own Tliy name." The Germans
fled, and Clovis had the victory.
He kept his word, and was baptized at Rheims by
St. Remigius, with his two sisters, three thousand
men, and many women and children; and as he was
the first great Teutonic prince who was a Catholic
Christian, the King of France, ever since his time,
has been called the Most Christian King and eldest
son of the Church. Clovis was the first Frank
chief who really made a home of Gaul, or who
wore a purple robe and a crown like a Roman
emperor. He made his chief home at Paris, where
he built a church in the little island on the Seine,
in honor of the Blessed Virgin, measuring the
The Frank Kiny. 49
length by how far he could throw an axe ; but,
though he honored the Gaulish clergy, he was still
a fierce and violent savage, who did many cruel
things. He generally repented of them afterwards,
and gave gifts to churches to show his sorrow, and
holy men were about him when, in 511, he died at
Paris.
His sons had all been baptized, but they were
worse men than he had been. The Frank kingdom
was only the north part of the country above the
Loire. In the south, where the Romans had had
possession so much longer, and built so many more
walled towns, the Franks never really lived. They
used to rush down and plunder the country round
about ; but then the townsmen shut themselves in,
closed their gates, and strengthened their walls,
and the Franks had no machines to batter the
walls, no patience for a blockade, and went home
again with only the spoil of the country round ;
while in the Province people called themselves
Roman citizens still, and each place governed itself
by the old Roman law.
Plenty of Gauls were in the northern part too,
speaking Latin still. They had to bear much
rough treatment from the Franks, but all the time
their knowledge and skill made them respected.
50 Young Folks' History of France,
The clergy, too, were almost all Gauls ; and now
that the Franks were Christians, in name at least,
they were afraid of them, and seldom damaged a
church or broke into a monastery. Indeed, if
there was any good in a Frank, he was apt to go
into a monastery out of the horrid barbarous ways
of his comrades, and perhaps this left those outside
to be still worse, as they had hardly any better
men among them. The four sons of Clovis diyided
the kingdom. That is, they were all kings, and
each had towns of his own, but all a good deal
mixed up together ; and in the four chief towns —
Paris, Orleans, Soissons, and Metz — they all had
equal shares. Not that they really governed, only
each had a strong box filled with gold and jewels,
and they always were leaders when the Franks
went out to plunder in the southern lands of Pro-
vincia and Aquitaine. There was another part the
Franks never conquered, namely, that far north-
western corner called Armorica, which Julius Caesar
had conquered, and St. Martin had converted last
of all. The granite moors did not tempt the Frank-s,
and the Kymri there were bold and free. More-
over, so many of their kindred Kymri from Britain
came over thither for fear of the Saxons, that the
country came to be called from them Bretagne, or
DEATH OK HLODIMIK'S CHILDREN.
The Frank Kingdom. 53
Brittanj^, and the Kymric tongue is spoken there
to this day.
When Hlodmir, one of the sons of Clovis, died,
his three little sods were sent to Paris to be under
the care of their grandmother, Clothilda. She was
so fond of them that their uncles, Hloter and
Hildebert, were afraid she would require that their
father's inheritance should be given to them. So
they asked her to send the boys to them on a visit,
and as soon as they arrived, a messenger was sent
to the Queen with a sword and a pair of scissors,
desiring her to choose. This meant that she would
choose whether the poor boys should be killed, or
have their heads shaven and become monks. Clo-
thilda answered that she had rather see them dead
than monks. So Hloter killed the eldest, who was
only ten, with his sword ; the second clung to
Hildebert, and begged hard for life, but Hloter
forced his brother to give him up, and killed him
too ; the third, whose name was Hlodoald, was
helped by some of the bystanders to hide himself,
and when he grew older, he cut off his long hair,
went into a monastery, and was so good a man
that he is now called St. Cloud. This horrible
murder happened about the year 533.
' ^^^^j^.
CHAPTER V
THE LONG-HAIRED KINGS.
A.D. 533-681.
THE Meerwings, or long-haired kings, were
altogether the most wicked dynasty (or race
of kings) who ever called themselves Christian.
They do not seem to have put off any of their
heathen customs, except the actual worship of
Frey and Odin. They murdered, plundered, and
64
The Long-Haired Kings, 55
married numerous wives, just as if they had been
heathens still. Most likely they thought that as
Christ was the God of Gaul, he must be honored
there; but they had no notion of obeying Him,
and if a Gallic bishop rebuked them, they only
plundered his church. By the Frank law, a mur-
der might be redeemed by a payment, and it was
full twice as costly to kill a Frank as to kill a
Roman, that is to say, a Gaul; for, except in the
cities in the Province and Aquitaine, this term of
Roman, once so proud, was only a little better
than that of slave.
Out of all the Meerwing names, one or two have
to be remembered above the rest for their crimes.
Hlother, the murderous son of Clovis, left four
sons, among whom the kingdom was, as usual,
divided. Two of these sons, Hilperik and Sieg-
bert, wished for queenl}^ wives, though Hilperik,
at least, had a houseful of wives before, and among
them a slave girl named Fredegond. The two
brothers married the two daughters of the King of
the Goths in Spain, Galswinth and Brynhild.
Siegbert seems to have really loved Brynhild, but
Hilperik cared for the beautiful and clever Frede-
gond more than anyone else, and very soon poor
Galswinth was found in her bed strangled. Frede-
56 Young Folks' Sistory of France,
gond reigned as queen, and Biynliild hated her
bitterly, and constantly stirred up her husband to
avenge her sister's death. Siegbert raised an army
and defeated Hilperik, but Fredegond contrived to
have him stabbed. She also contrived to have all
her husband's other children killed by different
means, and at last, fearing he would find out crimes
greater than even he could bear with, she contrived
that he too should bo stabbed when returning from
hunting, in the 3^ear 584. She had lost several
infants, and now had only one child left, Hloter II.,
a few months old, but in his name she ruled what
the Franks called the Ne-oster-ik, the not eastern,
or western kingdom, namely, France, from the
Saone westward ; while Brynhild and her son Hil-
debert ruled in the Austerik, or eastern kingdom,
from the Saone to the Sale and Rhine. There was
a most bitter hatred between the two sisters-in-law.
It seems as if Fredegond was of a wicked nature,
and would have been a bad woman anywhere.
One's mind shrinks from the horrible stories of
murder, treachery, and every sort of vice that are
told of her; but no outward punishment came
upon her in this world, and she died in 597 at
Paris, leaving her son, Hlother II., on the throne.
Brynhild often did bad things, but she erred
The Long-Haired Kings. 57
more from the bad times in which she lived than from
her own disposition. She tried, so far as she knew
how, to do good; she made friends with the clergy,
she helped the few learned men, she tried to stop
cruelty, she tried to repair the old Roman roads and
bridges, and many places are called after her — Queen
Brynhild's tower, or stone, or the like — and she was
very kind to the poor, and gave them large alms.
But she grew worse as she grew older; she had
furious quarrels with the Frank chiefs, and when
the Bishops found fault with her she attacked them,
and even caused the saintly Bishop of Vienne to
be assassinated. In her time there came from Ire-
land a number of very holy men, Keltic Christians,
who had set forth from the monasteries to convert
5nch Gauls and Franks as remained heathen, and
to try to bring the rest to a better sense of what a
Christian life was. St. Columbanus came into the
Austerick when Brynhild's two grandsons, Theude-
bert and Theuderick, were reigning there. Tlieu-
derick listened willingly to the holy man, and was
proceeding to put away his many wives and mend
his ways; but the old Queen's j)ride was offended,
and she could not forgive him for not allowing her
to come into his monastery, because no woman was
permitted there. She stirred up Theuderick to
58 Young Folks' History of France,
drive him away, whereupon he went to the Alps
and converted, the people there, who were still
worshippers of Odin. Soon after there was a fierce
quarrel between her two grandsons. Theuderick
was taken prisoner by his brother, and forced to
cut his hair and become a monk, but this did not
save his life. He was put to death shortly after,
and his brother soon after died ; so that Brynhild,
after having ruled in the name of her son and
grandsons, now governed for her great-grandson,
Siegbert, thirty-nine years after her husband's
death. But she was old and weak, and her foe,
Fredegond's son, Hlother, attacked her, defeated
her forces, and made her and her great-grandchil-
dren prisoners. The boys were slain, and the poor
old Gothic Queen, after being placed on a camel
and led through the camp to be mocked by all the
savage Franks, was tied to the tail of a wild horse,
to be dragged to death by it ! This was in 614.
Hlother thus became King of all the Franks,
and so was his son Dagobert I., who was not much
better as a man, but was not such a savage, and
took interest in the beautiful goldsmith's work
done by the good Bishop Eligius ; and, somehow,
his name has been more remembered at Paris than
he seems properly to deserve. In fact, the Franks
The Long-Haired Kings. 69
were getting gradually civilized by the Romanized
Gauls — the conquerors by the conquered; and
the daughters, when taken from their homes, some-
times showed themselves excellent women. It was
Bertha, the daughter of King Haribert, the mur-
derer of his nephews, who persuaded her husband,
Ethelbert of Kent, to receive St. Augustine ; and
Ingund, the daughter of Brynhild and Siegbert,
was married to a Gothic Prince in Spain, whom
she brought to die a martyr for the true faith.
Twelve more Meerwings reigned after Dagobert.
If they had become less savage they were less
S23irited, and they hardly attended at all to the
affairs of their kingdoms, but only amused them-
selves in their I'ude palaces at Soissons or Paris,
thus obtaining the name of Rois Faineants^ or
sluggard kings.
The affairs of the kingdom fell into the hands of
the Major Domi^ as he was called, or Mayor of the
Palace. The Franks, as they tried to have courts
and keep up state, followed Roman patterns so far
as they knew them, and gave Roman names from
the Emperor's Court to the men in attendance on
them. So the steward, or Major Domi, master of
the household, rose to be the chief person in the
kingdom next to the king himself. The next great-
60 Youny Folks' History of France.
est people were called Oomites, companions of the
King, Counts; and the chief of these was the
Master of the Horse, Comes Stahuli^ the Count of
the Stable, or, as he came to be called in the end,
the Constable. The leader of the a/rmy was called
Dux, a Latin word meaning to lead ; and this word
is our word Duke. But the Mayor of the Palace
under these foolish do-nothing Meerwings soon
came to be a much greater man than the King
himself, and the Mayor of the Palace of the Oster-
rik or Austrasia fought with the Palace Mayor of
the Ne-oster-rik or Neustria, as if they were two
sovereigns. The Austrian Franks stretched far
away eastward, and were much more bold and
spirited than the Neustrians, who had mixed a
great deal with the Gauls. And, finally, Ebroin,
the last ISTeustrian Mayor, was murdered in 681,
the Neustrian army was defeated, and the Austra-
sians became the most powerful. Their mayors
were all one family, the first of whom was named
PejDin of Landen. He was one of Queen Bryn-
hild's great enemies, but he was a friend of Dago-
bert L, and he and his family were brave defenders
of the Franks from the other German nations, who,
like them, loved war better than anything else.
CHAPTER VI.
CABL OF THE HAMMER.
A.D. G81.
THE grandson of Pepin of Landen is commonly
called Pepin L'Heristal. He was Mayor of
the Palace through the reigns of four do-nothing
Meerwings, and was a brave leader of the Franks,
fighting hard with their heathen neighbors on the
other side of the Rhine, the Saxons and Thurin-
gians, along the banks of the Meuse and Elbe ;
and not only fighting ^^•ith them, but helping the
missionaries Avho came from England and from
Ireland to endeavor to convert them.
He died in 714, and after him came his brave
son Car] of the Hammer, after whom all the family
are knoAvn in history as Carlings. Pie was Duke
of Austrasia and Mayor of the Palace, over (one
cannot say under) Hlother IV. and Theuderick
lY., and fought the battles of the Franks against
61
62 Young Folhs^ History/ of France,
the Saxons and Frisians, besides making himself '
known and respected in the Province and Aqui-
taine, where the soft Eoman speech softened his
name into Carolus and translated his nickname into
Martellus, so that he has come down to our day as
Charles Martel.
Whether it was meant that he was a hammer
himself, or that he carried a hammer, is not clear,
but it is quite certain that he was the greatest
man in Europe at that time, and he who did her
the greatest benefit.
It was a hundred years since Mahommed had
risen up in Arabia, teaching the Avild Arabs a strict
law, and declaring that God is but one, and that
he was His prophet, b}^ which he meant that he
was a greater and a truer prophet than the Lord
Jesus Christ. He had carried away many of the
Eastern nations after him and had conquered
others. He taught that it was right to fight for
the spread of the religion he taught, and his Arabs
did fight so mightily that they overcame the Holy
Land and held the city of Jerusalem. Besides
this, they had conquered Egypt and spread all
along the north of Africa, on the coast of the
Mediterranean Sea ; and thence they had crossed
over into Spain, and subdued the Christian Goths,
Carl of the Hammer, 63
all but the few who had got together in the Pyre-
nean mountams aod their continuation in the
Asturias, along the coast of the Bay of Biscay.
And now these Arabs — also called Saracens
and Moors — Avere trying to pass the Pyrenees and
make attacks upon Gaul, and it seemed as if all
Europe was going to be given up to them and to
become Mahommedan. Abdul Rhaman, the great
Arab Governor of Spain, crossed the Pyrennees at
the pass of Roncevalles, burst into Aquitaine,
gained a great battle near Bordeaux, and pillaged
the city, which was so rich a place that every
soldier was loaded with topazes and emeralds, and
gold was quite common !
Then they marched on towards Tours, where
the Abbey of Marmoutiers was said to be the
richest in all Gaul. But by this time Carl of the
Hammer had got together his army ; not only
Franks, but Burgundians, Gauls of the Province,
Germans from beyond the Rhine — all who will-
ingly owned the sovereignty of Austrasia, provided
they could be saved from the Arabs.
The battle of Tours, between Charles Martel
and Abdul Rhaman, was fought in the autumn oi
732, and was one of the great battles that decide
the fate of the world. For it was this which fixed
64 Young Folks'' History of France,
whether Europe should be Christian or Mahomme-
daii. It was a hotly-fought combat, but the tall
powerful Franks and Germans stood like rocks
against every charge of the Arab horsemen, till
darkness came on. The Franks slept where they
stood, and drew up the next morning to begin the
battle again, but no enemy appeared. Some Franks
were sent to reconnoitre, entered the enemj^'s camp,
and penetrated into their tents. But no living man
was to be found. The Arabs had decamped silently
in the night, and had left nearly all their booty
behind them, and the battle of Tours had saved
Europe. However, the Hammer had still to strike
many blows before they were driven back into
Spain, and this tended to bring the south of Gaul
much more under his power. Carl was looked
upon as the great defender of Christendom, and, as
at this time the king of the Lombards in ]N"orthern
Italy seemed disposed to make himself master of
Rome, the Pope sent two nuncios, as Pope's mes-
sengers are called, to carry him presents, among
them the keys of the tomb of St. Peter, and to beg
for his protection. Still, great as he was in reality,
he never called himself more than Mayor of the
Palace and Duke of Austrasia, and when he died
in 741, his sons, Pepin and Carloman, divided the
ARABS HAD DECAMPED.
Carl of the Hammer, 67
government, still as Mayors, for tlie Meerwing
Hilderick III. In 746, however, Carloman, weary
of the world, caused his head to be shaven b}-^
Pojje Zacharias, and retired into the great monas-
tery of Monte Cassino, where, about a hundred
years before, St. Benedict had begun a rule that
became the pattern of most of the convents of the
west. Pepin, commonly called le href^ or the Short,
ruled alone, and in 751 he sent to ask Pope Zacha-
rias whether it would not be wiser that the family
who had all the power should bear the name of
kings. The Pope replied that so it should be.
Hilderick was put into a convent, and the great
English Missionary-bishop, St. Boniface, whom
Pepin and his father had aided in his work among
the Germans, anointed Pepin as King of the Franks
at Soissons, and two years later, the next Pope,,
Stephen II., came into Gaul again to ask aid
against the Lombards, and at the Abbey of St.
Deny's anointed Pepin again, together with his
two young sons, Carl and Carloman. And so the
Meerwings passed awa}^ and the Carlings began.
Pepin was a great friend and supporter of St.
Boniface, who had been made Archbishop of May-
intz. Re did much by his advice to bring the
Church of Gaul into good order, and he was much
68 Young Folks' History of France.
grieved when the holy man was martyred while
preaching to the savage men of Friesland. Pepin
was constantly fighting with the heathen Saxons
and Germans to the east of him, and he so far
subdued them that they promised to send three
hundred horses as a present to the General Assem-
bly of Franks. To the north he had the old Gauls
in Brittany, who had to be Avell watched lest they
should plunder their neighbors ; and to the south
were the Arabs, continually trying to maraud in
the Province and Aquitaine ; while the Dukes of
Aquitaine, though they were quite unable to keep
back the Moors without the help of the Franks,
could not endure their allies, and hated to acknowl-
edge the upstart Pepin as their master. These
Dukes, though Teuton themselves, had lived so
long in the Roman civilization of the southern
cities, that they despised the Franks as rude barba-
rians ; and the Franks, on their side, thought them
very slippery, untrustworthy people.
Pepin was a great improvement in good sense,
understanding, and civilization on the do-nothing
Meerwings, but even he looked on writing as only
the accomplishment of clergy, and did not cause
his sons to learn to write. Yet Pope Stephen was
for a whole winter his guest, and when the Franks
Carl of the Hammer. 69
entered Italy and defeated Astolfo, King of the
Lombards, Pepin was rewarded by being made
" Senator of Rome." Afterwards the Lombards
attacked the Pope again. Pepin again came to his
help, and after gaining several victories, forced
King Astolfo to give up part of his lands near
Rome. Of these Pepin made a gift to the Pope,
and this was the beginning of the Pope's becoming
a temporal sovereign, that is, holding lands like a
king or prince, instead of only holding a spiritual
power over men's consciences as chief Bishop of
the Western Church.
Pepin, died at the Abbey of St. Denys in the
year 768. Do not call him King of France, but
King of the Franks, which does not mean the same
thing.
CHAPTER VII.
CARL THE GREAT.
7G8.
CARL and Carloman, the two sons of Pepin, at
first divided the Frank domains ; but Carlo-
man soon died, and Carl reigned alone. He is one
of the mightiest of the princes who ever bore the
name of Great. Carl der Grosse, the Franks called
him ; Carolos Magnus in Latin, and this has become
70
BAPTISM OF SAXOXS KV CHARLEMAGNE.
Carl the Great, 78
in French, Charlemagne ; and as this is the name
by which everybody knows him, it will be the
most convenient way to call him so here, though
no one ever knew him thus in his own time.
He was a most warlike king. When the Saxons
failed to send him three hundred horses, he entered
their country, ravaged it, and overthrew an image
or pillar near the source of the Lippe, which they
used as an idol, and called Irminsul. Thereupon
the Saxons burnt the church at Fritzlar, which St.
Boniface had built, and the war went on for years.
Charlemagne was resolved to force the Saxons to
be Christians, and Witikind, the great Saxon leader,
was fiercely resolved against yielding, viewing the
honor of Odin as the honor of his country. They
fought on and on, till, in 785, Charlemagne win-
tered in Saxony, and at last persuaded Witikind to
come and meet him at Attigny. There the Saxon
chief owned that Christ had conquered, and con-
sented to be baptized. Charlemagne made him
Duke of Saxony, and he lived in good faith to the
new vows he had taken. The Frisians and Bavari-
ans, and all who lived in Germany, were forced to
submit to the great King of the Franks.
There was a new king of the Lombards, Deside-
rio, and a new Pope, Adrian I. ; and, as usual, they
74 Young Folks' History of France,
were at war, and Adrian entreated for the aid of
Charlemagne. He came with a great army, drove
Desiderio into Pavia, and besieged him there. It
was a long siege, and Charlemagne had a chapel .
set up in his camp to keep Christmas in ; but for
Easter he went to Rome, and was met a mile off
by all the chief citizens and scholars carrying palm
branches in their hands, and as he mounted the
steps to St. Peter's Church, the Pope met him,
saying, " Blessed is he that cometh in the name of
the Lord." He prayed at all the chief churches in
Rome, and then returned to Pavia, which was
taken soon after. He carried off Desiderio as a
prisoner, and took the title of King of the Franks
and the Lombards. This was in 775, while the
Saxon war was still going on.
He had likewise a war with the Arabs in Spain,
and in 7T8 he crossed the Pyrenees, and overran
the countr}" as far as the Ebro, where the Arabs
offered him large gifts of gold and jewels if he
would return without touching their splendid cities
in the South. He consented, but as he was return-
ing, the wild Basque people — a strange people
who lived unconquered in the mountains — fell
upon the rear guard of his army in the Pass of
Roncevalles, and plundered the baggage, slaying
DKATH OF HOLAXD.
Carl the Grreat. 77
some of the bravest leaders, among tliera one
Roland, Warden of the Marches of Brittany.
Round this Roland wonderful stories have hung.
It is said, and it may be true, that he blew a blast
on his bugle-horn with his last strength, which
first told Charlemagne, on far before, of this direful
mischance ; and further legends have made him
the foremost and most perfect knight in the army,
nay, raised him to gigantic strength, for there is a
great cleft in the Pyrenean Hills called La Breche
de Roland, and said to have been made with one
stroke of his sword. Pfalgraf, or Count of the
Palace, was the title of some of the great Frank
lords, and thus in these romances Roland and his
friends are called the Paladins.
But to return to Charlemagne. He had three
sons — Carl, Pepin, and Lodwig. When the two
younger were four and three years old, he took
them both with him to Rome, and there Pope
Adrian anointed the elder to be King of Lom-
bardy ; the younger. King of Aquitania. As soon
as they had returned, Charlemagne had the little
Lodwig taken to his kingdom. As far as the Loire
he was carried in his cradle, but when he entered
Aquitania he was dressed in a little suit of armor
and placed on horseback, that he might be shown
78 Young Folks' History of France.
to his subjects in manly fashion. Wise, strong men
formed his council, whose whole work was keeping
the Arabs back beyond the Ebro ; but he was
taken back after a time to be educated in his
father's palace at Aachen. Charlemagne had gath-
ered there the most learned men he could find —
Alcuin, an Englishman, being one — and had a
kind of academy, called the School of the Palace,
where his young nobles and clergy might acquire
the learning of the old Roman times. Discussions
on philosophy were held, everyone taking some old
name, Charlemagne himself being called David.
He strove hard to remedy the want of a good
education ; and such was his ability, that he could
calculate the courses of the planets in his head,
though he never wrote easily, in spite of carrying
about tablets in his bosom, and practising at odd
times. Latin was, of course, familiar to him ; St.
Augustine's " City of God " was his favorite book ;
and he composed several hymns, among them the
Ve'ni Creator Spiritus — that invocation of the
Holy Spirit which is sung at Ordinations- He
also knew Greek, and he had begun to arrange a
Prankish Grammar, and collect the old songs of
his people.
No one was so much honored and respected in
SCHOOL OF THE PALACE.
Carl The Grre.at, 81
Europe, and after two more journeys to Rome on
behalf of the Pope, Leo III., the greatest honor
possible was conferred upon hhn. In the old Ro-
man times, the Roman people had always been
supposed to elect their Emperor. They now elected
him. On the Christmas Day of the year 800, as
Carl the Frank knelt before the altar of St. Peter's,
the Pope placed a crown on his head, and the
Roman people cried aloud, " To Carolus Augustus,
crowned by God, the great and peaceful Emperor
of the Romans, life and victory ! "
So the Empire of the West, which had died
away for a time, or been merged in the Empire of
the East at Constantinople, was brought to life
again in the person of Carl the Great ; while his
two sons were rulers of kingdoms, and all around
him were numerous dukes and counts of different
subject nations, all owning his empire. The old
cities, likewise, in Provence — Aquitania, Lom-
bardy, and Gaul — though they had councils that
governed themselves, owned him as their Emperor.
Moreover, he made the new territories which he
had conquered along the German rivers great
bishoprics, especially at Triers, Mentz, and Koln,
thinking that bishops would more safely and loy-
ally guard the frontier, and tame the lieathen
82 Young Folks' History of France.
borderers, than fierce warrior counts and dukes.
Aachen was the capital of this Empire. There
Carl had- built a noble cathedral, and a palace for
himself; and he collected from Italy the most
learned clerks and the best singers of church
music. His chosen name of David did not ill befit
him, for he was a great founder and benefactor of
the church, and gathered together synods of his
bishops several times during his reign to consult
for her good and defence. Indeed, his benefits to
her, and his loyal service, were such that he has
been placed in the calendar as a saint ; although
he had several serious faults, the worst of which
was that he did not rightly esteem the holiness and
closeness of the tie of wedlock, and married and
put away wives in a lax wa}^ that makes a great
blot in his character.
He was of a tall figure, with a long neck, and
exceedingly active and dextrous in all exercises —
a powerful warrior, and very fond of hunting, but
preferring swimming to anything else. Nobody
could swim or dive like him ; and he used to take
large parties to bathe with him, so that a hundred
men were sometimes in the river at once. His
dress was stately on occasion, but he did not ap-
prove of mere finery ; and ^^■hen he saw some
Carl The areat. 83
young noble over-dressecl, would rather enjoy tak-
ing him on a long muddy ride in the rain.
He had intended his eldest son Carl to be
Emperor, and Pepin and Lodwig to rule Lom-
bardy and Aquitaine under him as kings ; but
Pepin died in 810, and Carl in 811, and only Lod-
wio; was left. This last son he caused to be ac-
cepted as Emperor by all his chief nobles in the
church at Aachen, and then made him a discourse
on the duties of a sovereign to his people ; after
which he bade the young man take a crown that
lay on the altar and put it on his own head.
"• Blessed be the Lord, who hath granted me to see
my son sitting on my throne," he said.
Charlemagne died the next year, in 814, in his
seventj^-first year, and Avas buried at Aachen, sit-
ting upright, robed and crowned, in his chair, with
his sword by his side.
CHAPTER VIIL
THE CARLINGS.
814—887.
THE Carlings after Charlemagne are nearly as
difficult to understand or care about as the
Meerwings. The best way to understand the
state of things is to remember that the Empire —
the Holy Roman Empire of the West — consisted
of a whole collection of separate states — German,
Tlie Carlings, 85
Frank, Lombard, Biirgunclian, Gallic, Latin, and
that a Carling was always king in one or more of
these, and the chief of the family Emperor ; but
they were constantl}^ quarrelling, and whenever
any of them died, it was as if the whole were
shaken up together and the parts picked out
afresh. They were far from being as wicked or as
ignorant as the Faineants ; but it really was
almost impossible for their utmost efforts to have
succeeded in keeping the peace, even if they had
been such giants in mind as Charlemagne had
been.
His only son, Lodwig — Ludovicus Pius, as the
Latins called him ; Louis le Debonnaire, as he
stands in French books — was a good, gentle, pious
man, but his life was one continual warfare with
his sons. After he had given three kingdoms to
his three sons, their mother died ; he married
again, and had a younger son, Carl or Charles ;
and his desire to give a share to this poor boy led
to no less than three great revolts on the part of
the elder brothers, till at last their poor father died
worn out and broken-hearted, on a little islet in
the Rhine, in the year 840.
The eldest son, Lothar, was then Emperor, and
had for his own, besides the kingdom of Italy and
86 Young Folks' History/ of Franee,
that country where Aaclien (the capital) stood,
the strip ^^'hich is bounded by the Rhine and the
Alps to the east, and the Meuse and the Rhone to
the west. He was in the middle between his
brothers — Lodwig, who had Germany ; and
Charles, who had all the remainder of France.
Of course, they fought over this ; and when
Lothar died, his two sons divided his dominions
again — the elder (whose name was the same as
his own) got the northern half, between the Meuse
and Rhine ; and the younger had the old Provin-
cia. They both died soon, and would not be
worth speaking of, but that the name of the two
Lothars remained to the northern kingdom, Loth-
arik or Lorraine, and because we shall sometimes
hear of the old kingdom of Aries or Provence.
Charles survived all his brothers, and came to
be the head of the family, the second Emperor
Charles, commonly cpJled the Bald. He was King
from his father's death in 840, but Emperor only
for two years, from 875 to 877 ; and his life was a
dreary time of tumult and warfare, though he was
an active, able man, and did his best. He had a
good deal more learning than Charlemagne had to
begin with, and like him had a school in his pal-
ace, where the most remarkable person A7as a Kelt
-7^
*'he shed tears at the sight.
The Carlings. 89
from one of the old Scottish or Irish monasteries,
called John ; and also Scot, or Erigena (a native
of Erin). He was a great arguer and philosopher,
and got into trouble with the Pope about some of
his definitions. Kins^ Alfred the Great of Ensf-
land, who had his own palace school, invited Scot
to it, and afterwards placed him in the abbey at
Malmesbury ; but there the rude English schol-
ars' hatred to Scot broke out, and when he tried
to keep order they killed him with the iron pens
with which they wrote on wax tablets. At least
so goes the story.
Charles the Bald had little peace to enjoy his
palace school, for the same reason as Alfred was
at war. The Northmen were even more dreadful
enemies to France than to England. The first
fleet of their ships had been seen by Charlemagne,
and he had shed tears at the sight ; for he per-
ceived that all his efforts to subdue and convert
Bavarians, Saxons, and Frisians had not saved his
people from a terrible enemy of their own stock,
far more earnest in the worship of Odin, and (as
he foresaw) likely to come in greater numbers.
All through the troubles of Louis le Debonnaire
parties of Northmen were landing, and plundering
any city or abbey that was not strong enough to
90 Young Folks' History of France.
keep them off ; and when Alfred had made Eng-
land too mighty for them, they came all the more
to France. Sometmies they were met in battle,
sometimes a sum was offered to them to spare a
city from their plunder ; and if the walls were
strong, they would generally accept it. Paris was
thus bought off in the time of Charles the Bald
from the terrible sea-king, Hasting. Sometimes
the bishop of the threatened place would fancy he
had converted the sea-king and would add baptism
to the treaty. But once when this was done, and
there was a scarcity of white robes for the con-
verts, they turned round in a rage, declaring that
wherever they had been washed before they had
been more handsomely treated. Another heathen
had almost accepted the faith, when he paused and
asked what had become of all his dead fathers.
His teachers, instead of answering that God is
merciful, and deals with men according to what
they have, not according to what they have not,
replied that they were in hell fire. " Then," said
the pupil, " do you think I will desert them ? I
cast in my lot with them wherever they are." It
is not certain whether it was one of Witikind's
Saxons or a Northman who made this answer.
After Charles the Bald, three very short reigns,
NORTHMEN BEFORE PARIS.
The Carlings, 93
only lasting seven years altogether, of his son and
his two grandsons, and then the head of the Carl-
ings was Charles III., commonly called der diche
(the Thick or the Fat) — in France known as
Charles le Gros. He was the son of Lodwig
called the German, the son of Lodwig the Pious,
and seems to have been less fit than most of his
kindred for the difficulties of his post as Emperor
of the West, or King of the Franks.
The Northmen were worse than ever in his time,
not so much from his weakness, as because Harald
the Fairhaired had made himself sole King of
Norway, driving out all opposition ; and those who
would not brook his dominion now came south-
ward, intending not only to plunder, but to win
homes for themselves. One of these was the
famous Rolf Gauge, or Walker, so called because
he went into battle on foot. In the year 885 Rolf
and another sea-king named Sigurd sailed up the
Seine wdth seven hundred great ships, which
stretched for six miles along the stream, and pre-
pared to take Paris. First, however, Sigurd sent
for Bishop Gozlin, and promised that if tlie city
were only yielded to him he would allow no
harm to be done, no man's goods to be touched.
But the bishop said the city had been entrusted to
94 Young Folks' History of France.
him and Count Eucles (the governer) by the
Emperor, and that they could not yield it up ; and
for full thii'teen months the place was besieged,
until at last the Emperor arrived with an arm}-
collected from all the nations under him : but,
after all, he did not fight — he only paid the
Northmen to leave Paris, and go to winter in
Burgundy, which was at enmity with him. In
fact, every part of the domains of the empire was
at enmit}^ with poor fat Charles ; and the next
year (887) a diet or council met on the banks of
the Rhine and deposed him. Arnulf, a son of the
short-lived Carloman, was made Emperor, Count
Eudes was crowned King of France, Guy (Duke
of Spoleto) set up a kingdom in Italy, Boso of
Aries called himself King of Provence, and Kodolf
(another count) was crowned at St. Moritz King
of Burgundy; so that the Avhole Empire of Charle-
magne seemed to have been broken up, and Rolf
went on conquering more than ever, especiall}^ in
Neustria.
The seige of Paris, here mentioned, made an
immense impression on French and Italian fancy,
and was the subject of many poems and romances
in later times. Only they mixed up together in
one the three Karls — the Hammer, the Great, and
COUNT EUDKS KNTERING T'AKIS.
The Oarlings. 97
the Fat — and called liim Carlo Magno, sur-
rounded him with Paladins, of whom Roland or
Orlando was foremost ; made the Saracens besiege
Paris, and be beaten off, and pursued into Spain,
where the battle of Roncevalles and the horn of
Roland played their part — all having of course
the manners of knights and ladies of the fifteenth
centur}^ with plenty of giants, enchanters, and
wonders of all kinds of magical and fairy lore.
CHAPTER IX.
THE COUNTS OF PARIS.
• 887—987.
POOR Carl the Fat died of misei'y and grief
the year after he was deposed, but he was
not the last Carling. Besides the Emperor Arnulf,
there was a son of Ludwig the Stammerer (another
Carl), who tried to win the old French domains
back from Eudes. In fact, the westerly Franks,
who held Paris and all the country np to the At-
lantic Ocean, had become much mixed with the
old Gauls, and had learned to speak Latin a little
altered — in fact, the beginning of what we call
French — and they held with Eudes ; while the
Franks round Laon and Soissons were much more
German, and chiefly clung to the Carling Carl,
though he bore no better surname than the Simple.
The further eastward Franks of Franconia, as
we now call it, with all the other German tribes —
98
The Counts of Paris. 99
Swabians, Frisians, Saxonis, Bavarians, &c., — were
under Arnulf, and made up tlie kingdom of
Germany. The Franks west of the Rhine never
were joined to it again ; and after the death of
Arnulf's only son, Ludwig the Child, no more
Carlings reigned there, and soon the Saxons ob-
tained the headship.
The Counts of Paris were not Gauls, but Sax-
ons who had settled in the Frank country and
made common cause with the Gauls. They had
the same sort of patience with which the first
Carlings had waited till the Meerwings were qnite
worn out. Eudes let Charles the Simple govern
the lands between the Meuse and Seine, and when
Eudes died, in 898, his brother Robert the Strong
only called himself Duke of France, and left
Charles the Simple to be King of the Franks.
All this time Rolf and his Northmen had gone
on conquering a home in Northern Gaul. They
did not plunder and ravage like common vikings,
but they spared the towns and made friends with
the bishops ; and though they fouglit with the
nations beyond, they treated all the country be-
tween Brittany and the River Epte as if it were
their own. Charles the Simple came to an agree-
ment with Rolf. He said that if Rolf would
100 Young Folks' History of France.
become a Christian, and accept him as his king, he
would give him his daughter in marriage, and
o-rant him the possession of all these lands, as
Duke of the Northmen. Rolf consented, and in
911 he was bajDtized at Rouen, married Gisla (the
king's daughter), and then went to swear to be
faithful to the king. Now, this ceremony was
called swearing fealty. It was repeated whenever
there was a change either of the over or the
under-lord. The duke, count, or whatever he was,
knelt down before the over-lord, and, holding his
hands, swore to follow him in war, and to be true
to him always. The over-lord, in his turn, swore
to aid him and be true and good lord to him in
return, and kissed his brow. In return, the under-
lord — vassal, as he was called — Avas to kiss the
foot of his superior. This was paying homage.
Kings thus paid homage, and swore allegiance to
the emperor ; dukes or counts, to kings : lesser
counts or barons, to dukes ; and for the lands they
owned they were bound to serve their lord in
council and in war, and not to fight against him.
Lands so held were called fiefs, and the whole was
called the feudal system. Now, Rolf was to hold
his lands in fief from the king, and he swore his
oath, but he could not bear to stoop to kiss the
KNIGHTS AN1> I'EASAKTS.
The Counts of Paris, 103
foot of Charles. So lie was allowed to pay hom-
age by deputy ; but the Northman he chose was as
proud as himself, and, mstead of bending, lifted
the king's foot to his lips, so that poor Charles the
Simple was upset backwards, throne and all.
Rolf was a sincere Christian ; he made great
gifts to the church, divided the land among his
Northmen, and kept up such good laws that Nor-
mandy, as his domains came to be called, was the
happiest part of the country. It was even said
that a gold bracelet could be left hanging on a tree
in the forest for a Avhole year without any one steal-
ing it.
Charles the Simple, in the meantime, was over-
thrown in another way ; for Robert of Paris and
Duke Raoul of Burgundy made war on him, and
took him prisoner. His wife was a sister of the
English king Athelstan, and she fled to him with
her young son Ludwig, or Louis. They stayed
there while first Robert was king for a year, and
then Raoul, and poor Charles was dying in prison
at Peroune ; but when Raoul died, in 936, the
young Louis was invited to come back from Eng-
land and be king. The Count of Paris, Hugh the
Great, and Rolf's son, William Longsword (Duke
of Normandy), joined together in making him
104 Young Folks' History of France.
king ; but he was much afraid of them, and lived
at Laon in constant hatred and suspicion. The
French people, indeed, held him as a stranger, and
called him Louis d' Outre Mer, or from bej^ond
seas.
At last William Longsword was murdered by
the Count of Flanders, when his little son Kichard
was only seven years old. Louis thought this his
opportunity. He went to Rouen, declared himself
the little boy's right guardian, and carried him off
to Laon, and there treated him so harshly that it
was plain that there was an intention of getting
rid of the child. So Osmond de Centeville, the
little duke's squire, rolled him up in a bundle of
straw, and carried him to the stable like fodder for
his horse, then galloped off with him by night to
Normandy. A great war began, and Harald Blue-
tooth, King of Denmark, came to the help of the
Northmen. Louis was made prisoner, and only
gained his freedom by giving up his two sons as
hostages in his stead. Hugh, Count of Paris,
aided young Richard of Normandy ; while the
Saxon Emperor of Germany, Otho, aided Louis ;
and there was a fierce struggle, ending in the vic-
tory of the Count of Paris and the Northmen.
One of the young Frank princes died in the hands
The Counts of Paris, 105
of the Normans ; the other, Lothar, was given
back to his father when peace was made, giving
the Counts of Paris another great step in power.
In the year 954 Louis IV. died at Rheims., and
his widow entreated that the great Count Hugh
would protect Lothar. He did so, and so did his
son and successor, Hugh — commonly called Capet,
from the hood he wore — who managed everything
for the 3^oung king.
When there was a war with Otho, the Emperor,
the Franks said, ''It is a pity so many brave men
should die for two men's quarrel. Let them fight
a single combat, and we will have for chief which-
ever gains." This shocked the Germans, and one
of them said, " We always heard that the Franks
despised their king. Now we hear it proved."
Peace was made, and the Emperor gave Lothar's
younger brother Charles the province of Lotharik,
or Lorraine, as it was coming to be called.
Lothar died soon after, in 986 ; and though his
son Louis V. was crowned, he only lived a year,
and when he died in 987, the great counts and
dukes met in consultation with the chief of the
clergy, and agreed that, as the counts of Paris
were the real heads of the State, and nobody cared
for the Carlings, it would be better to do like the
106 Young Folks' History of France,
Germans, and pass over the worn-out Carlings,
who spoke old Frank, while the Paris Counts
spoke the altered Latin, which came to be called
French. So Charles, Duke of Lorraine, was not
listened to when he claimed his nephew's crown,
but was forced to return to his own dukedom,
where his descendants ruled for full eight hundred
years, and then again obtained the empire, as you
will hear.
And in 987, Hugh Capet, Count of Paris, was
crowned King of France, and from that time
French history begins. At first it was Gaulish
history, then it was Frank history, but at last it
has become French history.
The family which began with Robert the Strong
exists still, after more than one thousand years, of
which it reigned over France for nine hundred at
least. It is usually called the House of Capet,
from Hugh's nickname, though it would be more
sensible to call it the House of Paris. So, remem-
ber three great families — Meerwings or Mero-
vingians, Frank chiefs ; Carlings or Carlovingians,
the chief of whom was Emperor of the West;
House of Paris, or Capetians, Kings of France.
CHAPTER X.
HUGH CAPET.
987—997.
GET one of the older maps of France, where
it is in provinces, and not departments, and
I will try to show you what it was to be King of
France when Hugh Capet was crowned at Rheims.
Remember, there had once been a great Empire of
the West ; indeed, there was an empire still, only
the head of it was a Saxon instead of a Frank,
and it had been divided into different nations or
tribes, as it were, each ruled over by an officer or
count or duke of the Emperor's. Now, the na-
tions had fallen apart in groups, and their chiefs
held together according to what suited them, or
who was the strongest, and some with more, some
with less, feeling that the Emperor had a right
over them all. But as to meddling in the manage-
107
108 Young Folks' History of France.
ment of a duke or count's province, no emperor
nor king had any power to do that.
The new king was Duke of France, and Count
of Paris, and Guardian of the Abbey of St.
Denys. So in the place called the Isle of France
he was really master, and his brother Henri was
Duke of Burgundy. On the Loire was the great
county of Anjou, with a very spirited race of
counts ; and to the eastward were Vermandois and
Champagne, also counties. In all these places the
nobles, like the king himself, were d.escended from
the old Franks ; but the people in the towns and
villages were Gauls, and they all talked the form
of broken Latin which was then called the Langue
d'oil, because oil or oui was the word for yes.
This has now turned into French. In Normandy
the people were Northmen, but were fast learning
to talk nothing but French ; and in Brittany both
duke and people were still old Kymry, and talked
Kymric. They had never been much under the
Romans or Franks. They hated the French and
Normans, and never paid them any homage if they
could help it ; but the Norman dukes always con-
sidered that Brittany had been put under them,
and this led to plenty of wars.
The southern half of the country had only been
Hugh Capet. Ill
overrun from time to time, never subdued or peo-
pled even in the greatest Carling times. There
the people were less Gaul than Roman, and talked
a less altered Latin, which was called Langue d'oc^
because they said oc instead of oui ; and it was
also called Romance or Provencal. Old Latin
learning and manners, with their graces and ele-
gances, were still kept up in these parts, and the
few Frank chieftains who had come in had con-
formed to them. These were the Dukes of
Aquitaine or Guyenne, the Counts of Toulouse,
and the Counts of Narbonne. But in the south-
west of Aquitaine, near the Pyrenees and the sea,
were an old race called Basques, who seem to be
older still than the Gauls, and do not speak their
language, but a strange and very difficult one of
their own. The Basques, where more mixed with
the other inhabitants in the plains, were called
Gascons in France, Vascons in Spain, and were
thought great boasters.
These Romance-speaking counts were consid-
ered by the King of France to belong to him ; but
whether they considered themselves to belong to
the King of France was quite a diffei^ent thing.
The County of Provence, Old Provincia, certainly
did not, but held straight from the Holy Roman
112 Young Folks' History of France,
Empire. So did the other countries to the east-
ward, where a German tongue was spoken, but
Avhich had much to do with the history of France
— namely, Lorraine, where the old Carlings still
ruled, and Flanders.
So 3^ou see a king of France was not a very
mighty person, and had little to call his own. But
just as the empire was cut up into little divisions,
so each dukedom or county was cut into lesser
ones. If the duke or count did homage to
emperor or. king, he had under him barons (some-
times counts) who did homage in their turn for
the lands they held. And as the king could not
make war without a council of his counts and
dukes, no more could the duke or count without a
parliament or council of his barons. When money
was wanted, the clergy and the burghers from the
towns had to be called too, and to settle what they
would give. The lands held in this way were
called fiefs, and the great men who held straight
from the king himself were crown vassals ; those
under them were their vassals. In time of war
the king called his crown vassals, they called their
barons, the barons called the vavasours or freemen
under them, and got their men in from working on
the farms, and out they went. Money was not
Sugh Capet. 113
common then, so the lands were held on condition
of serving the lord in war or by council, of giving
a share of help on great occasions in his family or
their own, and so many days' work on his own
farm when it was wanted.
This was called the feudal system, and some-
times it worked well ; but if the baron was a hard
man, the poor peasants often suffered sadly, for he
would call them to work for him when their own
crops were spoiling, or take the best of all they
had. And the Franks had got into such a way of
despising and ill-treating the poor Gauls, that they
hardly looked on them as the same creatures as
themselves. When two barons went to war — and
this they were always doing — the first thing they
did was to burn and destroy the cottages, corn, or
cattle on each other's property, and often the peas-
ants too. The barons themselves lived in strong
castles, with walls so thick that, as there was no
gunpowder, it was not possible to break into them.
They filled them with youths whom they were
training to arms — the younger ones called pages,
the elder esquires or shield-bearers ; and as they
practised their exercises in the castle court, the
bearing of a gentleman was called courtesy.
When a squire had attended his knight battle,
114 Young Folk's History of France,
grown perfect in all his feats of arms, could move
about easily in his heavy shirt of little chains of
linked steel, and ride a tilt with his lance against
another man armed like himself, and had learned
enough to be a leader, he was made a knight or
chevalier, as the French called it, by the accolade,
that is a blow on the shoulders with the flat of
the sword before an elder knight. A belt and
gilded spurs marked the knight ; and he was re-
quired to vow that he would fight for God and his
Church, be faithful and true, and defend the poor
and weak. Gradually chivalry, as this spirit of
knighthood came to be called, did much to bring
in a sense of honor and generosity ; but at this
time, in the reign of Hugh Capet, there was very
little good to be seen in the world. All over
France there was turbulence, cruelty, and savage
ways ; except, perhaps, in Normandy, where Duke
Kichard the fearless and his son Duke Richard the
Good kept order and peace, and were brave, up-
right, religious men, making their subjects learn
the better, rather than the worse ways of France.
Just at this time, too, the Church and the clergy
were going on badly. The Pope had — ever since,
at least, the time of Carl the Great — been looked
on as the head of the whole Western Church, and
THE ACCOLADES.
Hugh Capet, 117
the people at Rome had the power of choosing the
Pope. Two wicked women, named Marozia and
Theodora, gained such power by their riches and
flatteries, that they managed to have anyone
chosen Pope whom they liked ; and of course they
chose bad men, who would do as they pleased.
This had gone on till the year 962, when the
Emperor Otho came over the Alps, conquered
Italy, and turned out the last of these shameful
Popes. Then he and his successors chose the
Pope ; but _ this was not the right way of doing
things, and the whole Church felt it, for there
was no proper restraint upon the Avickedness of
the nobles. The bishops were too apt to care
only for riches and power, and often fought like
the lay nobles ; and in the monasteries, where
prayer and good works and learning ought to have
been kept up, there was sloth and greediness, if
not worse ; and as to the people, they were hardly
like Christians at all, but more like brute beasts in
their ignorance and bad habits.
Indeed, there hardly was a worse time in all the
history of Europe than the reign of Hugh Capet,
which lasted from 987 to 997.
CHAPTER XL
ROBEKT THE PIOUS, 997—1031.
HENRY I., 1031—1000.
PHILIP L, 1060^1108.
IN a very curious way a better spirit was stirred
up in the world. In the Book of Revelation
it is said that Satan is to be bound for a thousand
years. Now, as the year 1000 of our Lord was
close at hand, it was thought that this meant that
tlie Day of Judgment was coming then, and there
118
Henry I. 119
was great fear and dread at the thought. At first,
however, the effect only seemed to be that the
wicked grew worse, for they feasted and drank
and revelled, like the men before the flood ; and
when the year 1000 began, so many thought it not
worth while to sow their corn, that there was a
most dreadful famine and great distress every-
where, so that there were even wretches who set
traps in the woods to catch little children for their
food.
But all this time there were good men who
taught repentance, and one blessed thing they
brought about while people's hearts were soft with
dread, was what was called the Truce of God,
namely, an agreement that nobody should fight on
Sundays, Saturdays, or Fridays, so that three days
in the week were peaceable. The monasteries
began to improve, the clergy to be more diligent,
and the king himself, whose name was Robert,
was one of the best and most religious men in his
kingdom. He used to come to the Abbey at St.
Denys every morning to sing with the monks ; he
used the Psalms every day in prayer and praise,
and wrote and set to music several Latin hymns,
which he carried to Rome and laid on the altar at
St. Peter's ; and he loved nothing so well as wait-
120 Young Folks' History of France.
ing on beggars, aud dressing the wounds of the
sick. But he could not manage his kingdom well,
and everyone took advantage of him. He had
married his cousin, Bertha of Burgundy, who was
heiress of ArJes in Provence. Now Provence
belonged to the Empire, and the Emperor did not
choose that the Kings of France should have it ;
so he made the Pope, whom he had appointed,
declare that Robert and Bertha were such near
relations that they could not be husband and wife,
and, with great grief, Robert submitted. Bertha
went into a nunnery and he married Constance of
Aquitaine. She brought all the gay fashions of
Southern France with her, and her followers wore
their clothes and cut their hair, sung songs and
made jokes, in a way that offended the Northern
French verv much. She was vain and liofht-
minded herself, could not endure the king and his
beggars, and grew weary of his hymns and prayers.
The sons were more like her than like their father,
and Robert had a troubled life, finding little peace
except in church, until he died in the year 1031.
His eldest son, Henry I., reigned after him, and
the second, Robert, became Duke of Burgundy,
and began a family of dukes which lasted on four
hundred years. The spirit of improvement that
BOBEKT AXD THE POOK.
Henry L 123
had begun to stir was going on. EveiybocI}^ was
becoming more religious. The monks in their con-
vents began either to set themselves to rights, or
else they founded fresh monasteries in new places,
with stricter rules, so as to make a new beginning.
And a very great man, whose name was Hilde-
brand, was stirring up the Church not to go on
leaving the choice of the Pope to the Emperor, but
to have him properly appointed by the clergy of
the Diocese of Rome, who were called Cardinals
— that is, chiefs. Though there was much fierce-
ness and wildness, and much wickedness and cru-
elty, among the great nobles, they still cared more
for religion ; they built churches, they tried to
repent as they grew old, and some went on pil-
grimage to pray for the forgiveness of their sins at
the Holy Sepulchre, where our Blessed Lord once
lay.
One of these pilgrims was Robert the Magnifi-
cent, Duke of Normandy. He walked on foot
very humbly in the country, but at Constanti-
nople, he rode through the gates of the city with
his mule shod with silver shoes, loosely fastened
on, so that the people might pick them up. He
died on his way, and his young son, William, had
124 Young Folks' History of France.
to fight very hard with enemies on all sides before
he could keep his dukedom.
Henry I. had been dead six years, and his son
Phillip I. had reigned six, from 1060, when this
great Duke of Normandy became still greater, by
winning for himself the kingdom of England.
Philip did not much wish this. He was afraid of
"William, and did not at all wish to see him grow
so much more powerful than himself. He spoke
contemptuously of the new King of England
whenever he could, and at last it was one of his
foolish speeches that made William so angry as to
begin the war in which the great conqueror met
with the accident that caused his death.
Philip was by no means a good man. After he
had lost his first wife, he fell in love wdth the
beautiful Countess of Anjou, Bertrade de Mont-
fort, and persuaded her to come and pretend to be
his wife. His son Louis, who was so active and
spirited that he was called VSvSille^ which means
the Wide-awake, showed his displeasure, and
Philip and Bertrade so persecuted him, that he
was obliged to come for refuge to England. How-
ever, in spite, of the king's wickedness, there was
much more spirit of religion in the people. There
were many excellent Bishops and Abbots, and
GOD WILLETH IT.
PJiilip I. 127
some good nobles ; Godfrey de Bouillon, Duke of
Lorraine, the descendant of the old Carlings, was
one of the very best of the princes at that, or in-
deed any other time.
It was in this reign that a pilgrim, named Peter
the Hermit, came home with a piteous history of
the cruelty of the Mahometans, who had possession
of the Holy Land. He obtained leave from the
Pope, Urban II., to call all the warriors of Christ-
endom to save the Holy Sepulchre, where our
Blessed Lord had lain, from the hands of the un-
believers. The first great preaching was at Cler-
mont, in Auvergne ; and there the whole people
were so much moved that they cried as if with one
voice, " God willeth it," and came crowding round
to have their left shoulders marked with a cross
made of two strips of cloth. An army came to-
gether from many of the lands of the west, and the
princes agreed to lay aside all their quarrels while
the Crusade lasted. The good Duke Godfrey led
them, all through Germany and Hungary, and
across the narrow straits of the Bosphorus, meet-
ing with many troubles and perils as they went ;
but at last they did get safe to Jerusalem, laid
seige to it and conquered it. Then they chose
Godfrey to be Kiiig of Jerusalem, but he would
128 Young Folk^' History of France.
never be crowned ; he said it was not fitting for
him to wear a crown of gold where his Lord had
worn a crown of thorns. Many nobles and knights
stayed with him to help him to guard the holy
places, while the others went home. Two convents
of monks resolved that, besides being monks they
would be soldiers of the Holy War. These were
called the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, or
Hospitaller Knights, and the Knights of the Tem-
ple. The Hospitallers had their name because they
had a house at Jerusalem for receiving the poor
pilgrims, and nursing them if they were sick or
wounded. People from England, Spain, Germany
and Italy were of the Crusade, and might belong
to the two orders of knighthood, but there were
always more French there than of any other nation.
Louis the Wide-awake was fetched home by the
French barons, and ruled for his father for the last
six years of Philip's reign, though the old king did
not die till the year 1108.
THE LEADEKS OF THE FIRST CBUSADK.
CHAPTER XII.
L O U I S V I. L E G R O S.
1108-1137.
IT is disappointing to find that Louis the Wide-
awake soon became Louis the Fat (Louis le Gros,
as in that time when everybody had a nickname,
he was called). But still he was spirited and ac-
tive, and much more like the old Counts of Paris
than any of the four kings before him had been ;
and he was a good, brave and just man, who made
himself respected. One great change was going
on in his time, which had begun in that of his
father. The old Roman cities in the South of
France had gone on governing themselves much as
in the Roman times, but the northern towns had
most of them fallen under the power of some
Prankish noble family, who were apt to call on
them for money, and take away the young men to
fight. Whenever one of these towns grew rich
and strong enough, it would buy leave from the
king and the noble to take care of itself. Then
131
132 Young Folks' History of France,
the noble had no more right over it ; but the burgh-
ers built their walls, practiced themselves in fight-
ing, and guarded their gates and towers. All the
chief men in each trade made up a town council,
and one of them was chosen each year to be the
mayor or provost, and manage their affairs. A
great bell was rung when the people were wanted
to come together, or in time of danger ; and they
knew well how to take care of themselves. The
burghers only went out to war when the king him-
self wanted them, and then they went on foot, and
wore plain armor, not like the gentlemen, wha
were all knights and squires. The free towns were
called communes ; but often they could not get or
keep their freedom without a great deal of fighting,
for the nobles were very jealous of them, and the
kings never made more communes than they could
help.
Do you remember that when Robert, Duke of
Normandy, governed so badly, his Normans asked
King Henry L, his brother, to help them ? Louis
did not choose to see the eldest brother despoiled,
and he was glad that the King of England and the
Duke of Normandy should not be the same person.
So he helped Robert, but could not keep him from be-
ing beaten at Tenchebray, and afterwards made pris-
Louis FT., Le G-ros. 133
oner. Afterwards Louis befriended poor young
William, Robert's son ; but he was beaten again at
Brenneville. There were nine hundred knights in
the battle of Brenneville, and only three were
killed, the armor they wore was so strong. After-
wards Louis helped William to obtain the County
of Flanders, which he inherited in right of his
grandmother, Queen Matilda ; but the poor young
prince had not long been settled in it before he died
of a hurt in the hand from a lance-point.
Three noted men lived in the time of Louis YI.
They were Suger, St. Bernard, and Pierre Abail-
ard. Suger was abbot of the monastery of St.
Denys', of which the Kings of France, as Counts
of Paris, were always the protectors ; where their
most precious banner, the oriflamme, was kept, and
where they always were buried. He was a clever
and able man, the king's chief adviser, and may,
perhaps, be counted as the first of the men who
filled the place of king's adviser, or, as we now call
it, prime minister. In those times these statesmen
were almost always clergy, because few others had
any learning. Pierre Abailard was a learned Bre-
ton, who studied deeply at Paris (where there was
a University much esteemed), and went very far
into all sorts of sciences. He became the teacher
134 Young Folks^ History of France.
of a young lady called Heloise, niece to a clergy-
man at Paris. They fell in love with one another,
and he took her away to Brittany ; but she left
him soon after their marriage, because a married
man could not be a priest, and only clergy could
flourish as scholars. So she went into a convent, and
at last became the abbess ; and Abailard became a
monk of St. Denys', where he went on studying
and writing till at last he confused himself, and
taught wrong doctrines, which a council of the
Church condemned ; but the struggle and debate
went on many years longer, until the death of
Abailard in the course of the next reign. Helo'ise,
who survived him, made this epitaph for him in
Latin : " Here lies Pierre Abailard, to whom alone
was open all possible knowledge." But to know
all that can be known does not bring peace and
happiness ; and Bernard, the monk, was a more
really great man. He was the son of a nobleman
in Burgundy, and had been brought up by a good
mother. One of the monasteries that had lately
been made the most strict, and which was much
esteemed for the holy lives led there, was at Cit-
eaux ; and Bernard, at the age of twenty-three,
not only retired there himself, but persuaded all his
brothers (six in number) to go thither with him.
LOUIS THE FAT ON AN EXPEDITION.
Louis FT., Le Gros. 137
They intended to have left the 3^oungest, a little
boy, to keep up the castle and inherit the lands ;
but he said, '• What ! all heaven for you, and earth
for me?" and insisted on going with them. It
seems to us a mistake ; but we must remember that
a noble in the twelfth century had dreadful temp-
tations to be cruel and lawless, and that a convent
often seemed the only way to avoid them.
Citeaux grew so overfull of monks that a branch
convent was founded at Glairvaux, of, which Ber-
nard was made the abbot. His brothers went
thither with him, and their old father came after a
time to end his days among his sons.
Bernard was one of the most holy and earnest of
men, and so learned and wise that he is sometimes
called the last of the Fathers of the Church, for
many of his writings still remain. His sermons
were full of love and beauty, though he never
failed to reprove men for their crimes ; and though
he was the most humble of men, his fame reached
throughout his own country and the whole Church,
and he was the adviser of kings and popes. He
was the person best able to argue with Abailard's
subtle errors, and the discussion between them
lasted for many years — on, indeed, into the next
reign.
138 Young Folks'^ History of France.
For Louis YI., tliougli not an old man, fell soon
into declining healtli. He tliouglit he had con-
trived admirably to get more power for the kings,
by giving his son in marriage to Eleanor, the
daughter of the Duke of Aquitaine. As she had
no brother, her son would own that great southern
dukedom as entirely as the County of Paris, and
this would make a great difference. Young Louis
was sent to marry the lady, and fetch her home ;
but while he was gone his father became worse, and
died in the year 113T.
It will help you with the dates to remember that
Louis began to govern in his father's name in 1100,
just as the English Henry I. came to the crown ;
and that he died three years after Henry, while
Stephen and Matilda were fighting in England.
CHAPTER XTTL
LOUIS VII., th:<: young.
1137—1180.
THE " Young" is an odd historical name for a
king who reigned a good many years ; hut he
was called so at first hecause he was only eighteen
years old when he came to the throne, and the
name clung to him because there was always some-
thing young and simple about his character.
Tlie first great event of his reign was that St.
Bernard stirred Europe once more to a crusade to
help the Christians in Palestine, who were hard
pressed by the Mahometans. At Vezelay there
was a great assembly of bishops and clergy,
knights and nobles ; and St. Bernard preached to
them so eagerly, that soon all were fastening crosses
to their arms, and tearing up mantles and robes
because enough crosses had not been made before-
130
140 Young Folks' History of France.
hand for the numbers who took them. The young
kmg and his beautiful q[ueen, Eleanor of Aqui-
taine, vowed to make the crusade, too, and set out
with a great army of fighting men, and, besides
them, of pilgrims, monks, women and children.
The queen was very beautiful and very vain ; and
though she called herself a pilgrim, she liad no no-
tion of denying herself, so she carried all her fine
robes and rich hangings, her ladies, waiting-maids,
minstrels and jesters. The French had no ships to
take them direct to the Holy Land, but had to go
by land all the way, along the shore of Asia Minor.
Numbers of the poor pilgrims sank down and per-
ished by the way ; and just as they had passed the
city of Laodicea, the Mahometan army came down
on the rear guard in a narrow valley, and began to
make a great slaughter. The king himself had
sometimes to get behind a tree, sometimes behind
a rock ; iind the whole army would have been cut
off, if a poor knight named Gilbert, whom no one
had thought much of, had not come forward, taken
the lead, and helped the remains' of the rear guard
to struggle out of the valley. Through all the
rest of the march, Gilbert really led the army ; and
3^et after this he never is heard of again, and never
seems to have looked for any reward.
CRTJSADBRS' RETURN.
Louis VIL, The Young, 143
When Palestine was reached at last, there were
not 10,000 left out of the 400,000 who had set out
from home ; and the gay queen's zeal was quite
spent ; and while the king was praying at the Holy
Sepulchre, and trying to fight for it, she was amus-
ing herself with all the lively youths she could
get around her. She despised her good, pious hus-
band, and said he was more like a monk than a
king ; and as soon as they returned from this un-
happy crusade, they tried to find some excuse for
breaking their marriage.
The Pope allowed the king to rid himself of this
wicked lady, and let them both marry again. He
married Constance, of Castille, and Eleanor took
for her husband the young English king, Henry II.,
and brought him all her great possessions.
The very thing had come to pass that the King
of France feared — namely, that the Dukes of Nor-
mandy should get more powerful than he was. For
Henry II. was at once King of England and Duke
of Normandy and Count of Anjou, and his wife
was Duchess of Aquitaine and Guienne ; and as
time went on, Henry betrothed his little son Geof-
frey to Constance, the orphan girl who Avas heiress
to Brittany, and undertook to rule her lands for
her ; so that the lands over which Louis had any
144 Young Folhs* History of France,
real power were a sort of little island within the •
great sea of the possessions of the English king.
Besides, Henry was a much cleverer man than Louis,
and always got the better of him in their treaties.
The Kings of France and Dukes of Normandy
always met at Gisors, on their border, under an
enormous elm-tree, so large that three hundred
horsemen could find shelter under its branches;
and these meetings never went on well for Louis.
He was obliged to promise that his two daughters,
Margaret and Alice, should marry Henry's two
sons, Henry and Richard, and to give them to
Henry to be brought up. When Henry had his
great dispute with Archbishop Becket, about the
question whether clergymen were subject to the
law of the land, Becket fled to France. Louis
loved and respected him very much, gave him
shelter iii an abbey, and tried hard to make peace
between him and Henry, but could never succeed,
till, after six years, Henry pretended to be recon-
ciled, and Becket went home in the year 1170. He
was murdered very soon after, as you have heard
in the history of England.
Louis must have been very much surprised when
his own former wife. Queen Eleanor, came dis-
guised as a man with her three eldest sons to his
Louis VII.^ The Young. 145
court, making great complaints of Henry for keep-
ing the government of their provinces in his own
hands. He must have thought it only what they
and he both deserved, and he gave them what help
he could ; but Henry was a great deal more strong
and craftj^ than any of them, and soon put them
down. Eleanor was thrown into prison, and kept
there as long as she lived. She richly deserved it ;
but her sons and the people of Aquitaine did not
think so. Those people of Aquitaine were a curi-
ous race — they were very courtly, though not very
good ; and they thought more of music, poetry,
and love-making than of anything else, though
they were brave men, too. Every knight was ex-
pected to be able to hold an argument in the courts
of love. The best poets among them were called
troubadours; and Eleanor herself, and her two
sons, Richard and Geoffrey, could compose songs
and sing them. All were as much beloved in Aqui-
taine as Henry was hated ; and the troubadours
did nothing but stir up the youths to fight with
their father and set their mother free ; but though
they broke out many times, they could never pre-
vail against him.
Louis yil. was married three times — to Elea-
nor of Aquitaine, to Constance of Castille, and to
146 Young Folks' History of France,
Alice of Champagne. These three queens had
among them six daughters, but no son ; and this
was a great grief, since no woman had ever reigned
in France, and it was believed that the old Salian
Franks had a law against women reigning. At
any rate, this grew to be the rule in France, and it
is called the Salic law. However, the question
had not to be settled this time, for at last a son
was born to Louis ; and in his joy he caused the
babe to be christened Philip, Dieu-donne^ or God-
given. The bo}' was the cleverest son who had
sprung from the House of Paris for ages past; and
while still quite young, cared for all that concerned
his father and his kingdom, at an age when other
boys care only for sports and games. When his
father met the English king at the elm of Gisors,
young Philip looked on and saw liow Henr}^
over-reached and took advantage of Louis ; and he
was bitterly grieved and angered, and made up his
mind that some day he would get back all that his
father was losing.
However, in the midst of his plans, young Philip
was one day out hunting in a forest with his father,
when he missed his companions, lost his way, and
wandered about all night. When he was found,
he was so spent with hunger and cold that he had
Louis VIL, The Young. 147
a bad illness, and was in great danger for some
days. When he grew better, King Louis, in great
jo}^ thought this precious life had been granted for
the prayers of his old friend Thomas a Becket,
and asked leave of Henr}^ to come and give thanks
at the archbishop's tomb at Canterbury. He came,
and was welcomed as a friend and guest. He gave
great gifts to the cathedral, and especially a beau-
tiful ring, Avliich became one of the great treasures
of the place.
He had had his beloved son, though only fifteen,
crowned, that France might have a king over her
while he was away ; and Philip was verj^ soon the
only king, for good, honest, simple-minded Louis
the Young died ver}^ soon after his return from
Canterbury, in the year 1180, nine years before
the death of his great enemy, Henry 11.
CHAPTER XIY:
PHILLIP II., AUGUSTUS.
1180-122.S.
PHILIP the Gift of God is most commonly
known in history as Philip Augustus. Why,
is not quite plain ; but as he became a very power-
ful King of France, it is most likely that one of
the old names of the Western Emperors, Avho
were all Caesar Augustus, got applied to him.
If his father had still been Louis the Young in
his old age, Philip might in his youth have been
called Philip the Old, for he was much older in
skill and cunning at fifteen than his father had
been all his life. The whole history of his reign is
of his endeavor to get the better of the Plantage-
net kings of England. He so much hated the
thought of what he had seen under the elm-tree of
Gisors, that he cut it down ; and though he hated
148
Philip 11.^ Augustus. 149
King Henry and his sons all alike, he saw that the
best way to do them harm was by pretending
to be the friend of whichever was not the king,
and so helping on their quarrels. The eldest and
third sons, Henry and Geoffrey, were by this time
dead, and Richard, of the Lion-heart was the favor-
ite of the Aquitaine troubadours.
There came news from Palestine that the Chris-
tians had been conquered by the great Saracen
chief Saladin, and that Jerusalem had been taken
by him. There was great lamentation, and a fresh
crusade was determined on by all the princes of
Europe, the Emperor, the King of France, the
King of England, and his sons. The Emperor,
Frederick of the Red Beard, set off first, but he
was lost by the way while bathing in a river in Asia
Minor ; and the two kings waited to arrange their
affairs. Philip's way of doing this was to get
Richard to his court, and to pretend to be so fond
of him that they both slept in the same bed, drank
out of the same cup, and ate out of the same dish ;
but he was stirring up Richard — who needed it
little — to demand his mother's • freedom and the
land of Aquitaine, and to rebel against his father,
leading his brother John with him. This was the
rebellion which broke the heart of Henry II. He
150 Young Folks' History of France,
died, and Richard went on his crusade as king.
It was the first crusade when the armies went
by sea instead of land. Richard Iiad his own fleet,
but Philip was obliged to liire ships of the mer-
chants of Genoa ; and when the two fleets reached
Sicily, they did not venture to sail on till the win-
ter was over, but waited till spring. Now that
Richard was king, Philip no longer pretended to
love him i and there were many disputes among the
Crusaders. At last they sailed on to help the
Christians, who were besieging Acre. Philip ar-
rived first, and quickened the works ; but still no
great things were done till Richard arrived; and
then Philip was vexed that every one talked so
much more of the English king's brave doings than
of himself. The heat of the climate soon made
both kings fall sick ; and when the city was taken,
Philip's doctors declared that he must go home at
once if he wished to recover. Most likely they
were right ; but he was glad to go, for he hoped to do
Richard a great deal of harm in his absence. The
Pope forbade any one to attack a Crusader's lands
while he was away ; but Philip could stir up
Richard's subjects and his brother against him.
And when, as you remember, Richard was made
captive in Austria, on his way home, Philip even
CAPTUKE OF AOKE.
Philip 11.^ Augustus. 153
sent money to the Emperor of Germany to keep
him prisoner. At last, when the German princes
had forced the Emperor to set him free, Philip
sent word to John, in this short note, " Take care
of yourself, for the devil is let loose. "
But when, two years later, Richard of the Lion-
heart was killed at Limoges, Philip became John's
most bitter enemy, and the friend of the only other
Plantagenet left, namely, Geoffrey's son, Arthur,
Duke of Brittany, who appealed to his suzerain,
Philip, to make him Duke of Normandy and Count
of Anjou, as son of the elder brother. Philip
called on John to give up these lands ; but John
offered to make a peace by marrying his niece,
Blanche, the daughter of his sister and the King of
Castille, to Philip's son, Louis the Lion. Philip
was in trouble himself at the time, and consented
to make peace.
Philip's trouble was by his own fault. His first
wife, Isabel of Hainault, was dead, and he had
thought to make friends with the King of Den-
mark by marrying his daughter Ingeborg. But
the Danes were then very rough and untaught, and
poor Ingeborg was a dull, clumsy, ignorant girl,
not at all like a courtly lady. Philip took such a
dislike to her that he sent her into a convent, and
154 Young Folks'^ History of France.
married tlie beautiful Agnes de Meranie, the
daughter of the Duke of the Tyrol. But there
was then ruling one of the mightiest Popes who
ever lived, called Innocent III. He was deter-
mined not to let any one, however great, go on in *
sin unwarned ; and he called on Philip to put
Agnes away, and take back his only true wife.
And when Philip would not, Innocent laid the
kingdom under an interdict — that is, he forbade
any service to go on in an}' church except in those
of the monks and the nuns, and there only with
the doors shut against all outside. The whole na-
tion vfas, as it were, cut ofp from God for their
prince's sin. Philip tried to stand up against this
dreadful sentence, at first ; but he found the peo-
ple could not bear it, so he sent Agnes away, and
took Ingeborg back. He was then absolved, and
his kingdom went on prospering. When, in 1203,
Arthur of Brittany perished in prison, Philip sum-
moned John, as a vassal of France, to answer for
the murder. The great vassals met, the trumpets
sounded, and John was called on to appear ; but as
he did not come, he was sentenced to have for-
feited his lands of Normandy and Anjou, and
Philip entered them with his army and took the
castle, while John could not get men or money to
PhUlp 11.^ Augustus. 155
come and stop him ; and only the lands of old
Eleanor of Aquitaine, who was still alive, remained
to the English.
This forfeit made a great step in the power of
the French kings, since not only had the English
kings lost Normandy and Anjou, but these two
great domains belonged to the French king as entire-
ly as his County of Paris. He had no duke or count
between him and the barons or cities. Philip's de-
signs against the Plantagenets were favored by
John's own crimes. The quarrel with the Pope
that you have heard of, about the Archbishop of
Canterbury, made Innocent III. invite Philip to go
and conquer England, but the fear of this brought
John to make peace with the Pope.
However, John's nephew, Otho of Brunswick,
was emperor, and he too had quarrelled with the
Pope, who wanted to make young Frederick of
Sicily emperor. Philip took Frederick's part, and
Otho marched ao-ainst him into Flanders. All the
o
French nobles had gathered round their king, and
at Bouvines there was one of the greatest battles
and victories that French history tells of. Otho
had to gallop away from the battle, and Philip
said, " We shall see nothing more of him than his
156 Young Folks' History of France.
back." This great battle was fought in the year
1214.
Very shortly after, Philip's eldest son, Louis,
called the Lion, was invited to England by the
barons, because they could no longer bear the hor-
rible cruelties and wickednesses of John ; and he
would not keep Magna Charta, which he had
signed. Louis went to England, and London was
put in his hands ; but when King John died, the
barons liked better to have his little innocent son,
Henry III., as their king, than to be joined on to
France. So, after Louis's troops had been beaten
by land and by sea, he came home and gave up the
attempt.
But Philip Augustus certainly had the wish of
his life fulfilled, for he had seen his foes of the
House of Plantagenet humbled and brought to
bitter trouble, and he had taken to himself the
chief of their great possessions.
He died in the year 1223, having lived in the
reigns of four English kings, and done his utmost
to injure them all. He was not a good man ; but
as he was brave and clever, and a good friend to
the towns, the French were very proud of him.
CHAPTER XV.
THE ALBIGENSES ..... 1190.
LOUIS YIII., THE LION" . . . 1223—1226.
LOUIS, tlie Lion had a very short reign, but
most of his doings had been in his father's
time ; and I left them out that you might hear, all
in one, as it were, the history of Philip Augustus
and his crafty dealings with the House of Planta-
genet.
Now, we will go back and speak of Louis, before
he came to the throne, and of the ]3eople he chiefly
fought with. You remember that the South of
France, which had first been settled by the Romans,
and had never been peopled by the Franks, was
much more full of learning and thinking than the
northern part. The Langue doc was much more
used for poetry and elegant speech than the Langue
cfoui. But somehow, among these people there
157
158 Young Folks' History of France.
arose up a heresy (that is, a false doctrine), which
seems to have come to them from the East. It
would not be well to tell you all about it, even if
you or I could understand it ; but one great point
in it was that these people said that the Power of
Evil is as great and strong as the Power of Good,
thus making Satan like another God, as some old
Eastern pagans thought. The evil ways of Chris-
tians strengthened the notions of these people, who
were called Albigenses, from the town of Albi.
Their southern cleverness saw what was amiss,
and they made songs laughing at the clergy, and
at the way they dealt with holy things, and often
at the holy things themselves, till they led away a
great many people after them, and even some of
the great princes of the South, who began to feel
as if the Albigenses were something specially be-
longing to themselves, and to the old culture of
the Roman Provincia.
But the great Pope, Innocent III., could not
allow all this country to fall away from the Church.
While he was thinking what was to be done, two
men offered themselves to him. One was a Span-
iard, named Dominic, who wished to found an
order of brethren to go forth, preach, teach and
bring back heretics ; the other was an Italian,
The Alhigenses. 159
named Francis, who cared above all for holiness,
and longed to be like our Lord, and wanted to
draw together men within the Chnrch to be more
spiritual and less worldly, and give the enemy no
cause to take offence at their faults. Both these
good men were allowed to institute brotherhoods,
orders not quite like the monks in the old con-
vents, but still poorer. Their brethren were called
friars, and went about preaching and hearing con-
fessions, and helping men and women to lead holier
lives — those of St. Francis in Christian places,
those of St. Dominic wherever there was heresy.
Dominic was further allowed to judge and punish
with severe penances and captivity such as would
not be convinced, and the inquiry into opinions
which he and his friars made was called the
Inquisition.
But the great dukes and counts in the South of
France — in Provence, Toulouse, Foix, Albi, and
many others — did not choose to have their people
interfered with. They all spoke much the same
language, and they were resolved, right or wrong,
to hold together ; and it is really one of the most
difficult questions in the world whether it is well
or ill to put down false teachings. The more peo-
ple think and read the more they doubt about per-
160 Young Folks' History of France.
secution ; and so these Provencal princes, being
cleverer than their rough neighbors, were the less
disposed to punish their subjects ; but they were
also less religious and less earnest, and Pope Inno-
cent had no question but that they ought to be
called to an account. So he proclaimed a crusade
against them, as if they had been Saracens, and
made the leader of it Simon, Count de Montfort, a
stern, hard, though pious old kuight, the father of
the Simon de Montfort who fought with Henry
HI. Pedro II., King of Aragon, joined the
Albigenses, and there was a terrible war all over
the south. In the year 1213 a great battle was
fought at Muret, in the County of Toulouse, in
v/hich the Albigenses were beaten, and the King
of Aragon killed. Those were cruel times, and the
Crusaders treated their captives very savagely.
The Count of Toulouse, Raymond, stood against
the Crusaders, and with his son, also named Ray-
mond, fought hard ; but the Pope declared them
unworthy to rule, and granted Simon de Montfort
all the lands he had conquered in the South of
France. In the northern parts he was looked on as
a saint, and when he went to do homage to the
king, people ran to touch his horse and his clothes
as something holy. Indeed, he was a sincerely
^'^l
■"^4
THE I'.ATTLE OF MUKET.
Louis VIIL, The Lion. 163
good man ; and though he did many things so
cruel that I cannot tell you of them, it was all be-
cause he thought it his duty. Louis the Lion aided
him, and learnt the art of war during these battles ;
but when tlie Crusaders tried to take the city of
Toulouse, the people, knowing how horribly they
would be treated, held out against them ; and at
last, in 1217, the year of our King John's death,
one night, when Simon was attacking the walls, a
woman threw down a heavy stone, which struck
him on the head and killed him.
His eldest son, Amaury, was not such an able
warrior, and the Albigenses began to get the better
of the Crusaders, while Louis the Lion was away in
England ; but in the year 1223, when Philip died,
and he became King of France, he was called upon
by the Pope to begin war again. He fought with
all his might ; but in spite of his title of the Lion,
he was not as able a soldier as he was a brave man,
and in the three j^ears of his reign he did not much
weaken the Albigenses, though he was at war ^\ith
them all through his short reign. While he was
passing through Auvergne, a sickness broke out in
his army, he fell ill himself, and died in the year
1226.
His eldest son, Louis IX., was only eleven years
164 Young Folks' History of France.
old ; but the queen, Blanche of Castille, his mother,
was a very good and spirited woman, and man-
aged the kingdom excellently. She sent troops,
who gained such successes that at last Count Ray-
mond of Toulouse was forced to make peace, and
to give his only child into Blanche's hands to be
brought up as a wife for her third son, Alfonso.
The Count of Provence, who held from the Em-
peror, had four daughters, and no son, and these
ladies were married in due time to the King of
France and his brother Charles, and to the King of
England and his brother Bichard, and thus all that
great country of the Languedoc Avas brought
under the power and influence of the north. The
Dominican friars and the Inquisition were put in
authority everywhere, that the false doctrine of the
Albigenses might be rooted out ; and there was
much of barbarous punishment, imprisonment tor-
ture, and even burning of heretics. It was a cruel
age, and no doubt terrible things were done ; but
that the punishments were savage does not make
the faith of the Albigenses right.
It was a time when much thought was going on
throughout Europe. Pope Innocent III. had made
the Church of Rome very powerful, and though
no one who came after was as great as he was, his
Louis VIIL, The Lion. , 165
23lans were followed out, and the King of France,
who was always called the Eldest Son of the
Church, was one of the first to be reckoned on for
carrying them out. They were often plans for
mere earthly power more than spiritual, but all
good men thought it their duty to aid them, and it
was a time when there were many good men. The
work of St. Bernard and the example of St. Francis
were doing much to make the lives of men and
women more pure and holy, and there was more
learning and less roughness than in the last age.
Everything that was then made was strangely
beautiful too — castles, churches and cities were in
most graceful architecture ; armor and dress were
exquisite in color and shape, and the illuminations
in the manuscripts were as lovely as hand could
make them.
CHAPTER XVI.
ST. LOUIS IX.
1226.
THE little king, Louis IX, who came to the
throne in 1226, when he was only eleven years
old, was happy in having a good and wise mother,
Queen Blanche of Castille, who both brought him
up carefully, and ruled his kingdom for him well
and wisely.
She was sometimes a little too jealous and stern,
and as he grew up she was jealous of his caring for
anybody else. When he married Margaret of
Provence, she did not like the voung: husband and
wife to be very much together, for fear Louis should
be drawn off from graver matters ; but on the
whole she was an excellent mother and queen, and
there have been very few kings in any country so
good and just and holy as Louis was. He never
166
jSl Louis IX, 167
seems in all his life, to have clone anything that he
knew to be wrong, and he cared more for God's
honor than anything else. Sometimes such very
pious kings forgot that they had any duty to their
people and did not make good rulers ; but Louis
kncAV that he could not do his duty properly to God
if he did not do it to man, so he showed himself a
wise, just prince and good warrior. He was so
much stronger and cleverer than our poor foolish
Henry HI., that his barons thought he could take
away all Guyenne, which had been left to King
John ; but he said he would not do an injustice.
Henry had married his queen's sister, and their
children would be cousins, so he would not do
what would lead to wars between them. But Avhen
Henry wanted him to give back Normandy and
Anjou, he had the matter well looked into ; and he
decided that King John had justly forfeited them
for murdering Arthur of Brittany, and so he ought
to keep them. So he was always sensible as well
as just.
He was still a young man, when he had a very
bad illness and nearly died. In the midst of it he
made a vow that if he got well he would go to the
Holy Land, and fight to set Christ's Sepulchre free
from the Mahometans. As soon as he grew better
168 Young Folhs' History of France.
he renewed the yow, though it grieved all his peo-
ple very much ; but he left them to be governed
by his mother, and as soon as he could get his army
together, he set out on his crusade with his wife
and his brothers.
As the Mahometans who held the Holy Land
came from Egypt, it was thought that the best way
of fighting them would be to attack them in their
own countr}^ So Louis sailed for Egypt, and be-
seiged and took Damietta ; and there he left his
queen, Margaret, while he marched on by the side
of the Nile, hoping to meet the enemj^ But it was
a bad season, for the Nile was overflowing, and the
whole country was one swamp, where the knights
and horses could hardly move, and grievous sick-
ness broke out. The king himself became very ill,
but he and his men roused themselves when they
found that a battle was near. It was fought at
Mansoureh. The adversaries were not native
Egyptians, but soldiers called Memlooks. They
had been taken from their homes in early infancy,
made Mahometans, and bred up to nothing but
war ; and very terrible warriors they were and
quite as much feared by the Sultan and the Egyp-
tians as by the enemy. However, the French
feared nothing; they were only too fool-hardy;
St. Louis IX. 169
and when the Enghsh Earl of Salisbury gave ad-
vice to be prudent and keep a guard at the camp,
the kinc!-'s brother Robert called out that he was
afraid, and the earl answered in a passion that he
should go as far among the enemy as Kobert him-
self. So they all dashed in, and many others, and
the ]\Iemlooks got between them and the camp,
and cut them off and killed them. The king was
so weak that he could hardly sit on his horse, but
he tried to call his men together and save them ;
but it was all in vain, the Memlooks were all roiuid
them, and he was so faint that his knights took him
off his horse, and laid his head in a woman's lap,
fearing each moment to see him die. He gave
himself up as a prisoner, and lay day after day in
a hut with two priests waiting on him. He re-
spected them so much that he could not bear to let
them do servants' work for him ; and he was so
patient and brave, that the Memlooks themselves
said he was the best man they had ever seen, and
wanted to make him Sultan of Egypt. At last it
was settled that he should be set free, if he would
pay a heavy ransom, and give up the city of
Damietta, which he had taken. This was done,
and afterwards he embarked with his queen and
the remains of his army, and went to the Holy
170 Young Folks' History of France.
Land ; but there was a peace just then, and no
fightmg ; and after he had fulfilled his vow of
pilgrimage, he returned to France, but not to find
his mother there, for she had died in his absence.
Fourteen most happy and good years followed
his return. He was a most wise and valiant king
in his own kingdom, and thoroughly just and up-
right. There was a great oak-tree near his palace
of Vincennes, under which he used to sit. hearing-
the causes of the poor as well as the rich, and doing
justice to all.
He had a clear good sense and judgment, that
made him see the right thing to do. The Pope
had a great quarrel with the Emperor Frederick
n., and tried to make Louis take up arms against
him, as his father had done against King John of
England i but the good king saw that even the
Pope's bidding would not make this right, and held
back. He and Henry III. of England were yqtj
loving brothers-in-law; and during the barons'
wars in England, Eleanor, the young wife of Ed-
ward, the heir of England, was left with his aunt.
Queen Margaret of France. You recollect that
Louis IX. and Henry III. and their two brothers,
Charles, Count of Anjou, and PJchard, Earl of
Cornwall, had married the four daughters of the
St. Louis IX. 171
Count of Provence. The Earl of Oornwall was
chosen to be King of the Romans — that is, next
heir to the Western Empire — and when her three
sisters were queens, the fourth sister, Beatrice,
kept the County of Provence. She is said to have
been unhappy because her sisters sat on thrones,
when she only sat on a stool ; but before long the
Pope offered the kingdom of the two Sicilies to
her husband, Charles of Anjou. It rightl}' be-
longed to the grandson of the EmjDcror Frederick,
and Louis wished his brother to have nothing^ to do
with it ; but Charles was a false and ambitious
man, though he pretended to be as religious as
Louis ; and with an army of Provengals he set out
and gained the kingdom we now call Naples and
Sicily. The young heir Conradin set off to try
to regain his inheritance, but Charles defied him
in battle, made him j)i'isoner, and put him to death
on the scaffold.
Louis had always intended to make another cru-
sade, and Charles promised to join him in it, as
well as Edward of England. All the North of
Africa was held by the Moors, Vt^ho were Mahom-
etans ; but Louis had had letters that made him
think that there was a chance of converting the
Dey of Tunis to the Christian faith, and his brother
172 Young FoUcs^ History of France.
Charles wished to show them the crusading army
in hopes of alarming them, and getting power
there. So Louis, with his army, landed in the Bay
of Tunis, and encamped in the plains of Old
Carthage to wait for King Charles and Edward of
England : but the Moors were foes instead of
friends. It was very hot and unwholesome, and
deadly sickness broke out. The good king went
about from one tent to another, comforting and
helping the sick, but he was soon laid low himself.
Pie lay repeating Psalms, and dictating a beautiful
letter of adyice to his daughter, as he grew v/orse
and worse ; and at last, with the words, " O Jeru-
salem, Jerusalem ! " on his tongue, he died in the
year 1270, nor has there ever been such a king in
France again, and few in any other country.
Charles of Sicily and Edward of England came
three days later ; and as soon as they could get
together the poor, broken, sad and sick army, they
sailed for Sicily, taking with them the poor young
king, Philip, who was very ill himself, and could
not go on with the crusade, so that Edward was
obliged to go alone, as we all know. Louis and
his youngest son, who had died a day or two before
him, were buried together at St. Denys, and he
has ever since borne the well-deserved title of saint.
DKATJr OF I.OUIS.
CHAPTER XVIL
PHILIP III., THE HAEDY ; AXD PHILIP lY., THE PAIR.
1271—1284—1814.
ST. LOUIS left three sons. The second, Rob-
ert, Count of Clermont, must be remembered,
because three hundred years later his descendants,
the House of Bourbon, came to the throne of
France. The eldest son, Philip IIL, was a man
who left very little mark, though he reigned thir-
teen years. The most remarkable thing that hap-
pened in his time was a great rising against his
uncle, Charles of Anjou, in Sicily. The French
and Provengal knights he had brought with him
were proud, and rude in their behavior to the peo-
ple of the country, and oppressed them heavily.
At last, on Easter Monday of 1282, as the people
of Palermo were on their way to hear vespers, all
in holiday attire, a French soldier was rude to a
175
176 Young Folks' History of France.
Sicilian girl, and a fight broke out, which ended in
the killino; of all the Frenchmen in the island ex-
cept one, who had been more kind and gentle than
the rest. This was called the Sicilian Yespers.
The Sicilians then sent to offer the crown to Pedro,
King of Aragon, the nearest kinsman of their old
line. The Pope was so angry with him for accepts
ing it as to declare his own kingdom forfeited, and
to send Philip of France to take it from him. But
soon after the French army had advanced into
Aragon, sickness broke out among them, the king
himself caught it, and died in the year 1284 ; and
Pedro of Aragon gained the island of Sicily and
kept it, though Charles of Anjou and his sons
reigned on in Naples on the mainland.
Philip IV., called Le Bel^ or the Fair, was only
seventeen years old when he came to the crown ;
but he was as clever and cunning as his uncle,
Charles of Anjou, or his great grandfather Philip
Augustus, and his great object was to increase the
power of the crown by any means he could. He
had not to deal with an English king like John ;
but Edward I. was so much more anxious to make
one kingdom of Great Britain than to be powerful
in France, that he took little concern for his French
duchies. So when Philip IV. picked a quarrel and
FMip in.. The Hardy. ITT
seized Guyenne, Edward would not draw off his
men from Scotland to fight for it, but made a peace
which only left him Gascony, and sealed it by him-
self marrying Philip's sister Margaret, and be-
trothed his son Edward to Philip's little daughter
Isabel. It was very wrong — almost the worst
action of the great king's life — for young Edward
was already betrothed to the young • daughter of
the poor Count of Flanders, Guy Dampierre, whom
Philip was cruelh^ oppressing. When England
thus forsook their cause, Philip made the count
prisoner, and so kept him all the rest of his life.
Nothing but misery came of the marriage.
But the most remarkable part of the history of
Philip lY. is what concerns the Church and the
Popes. For the last two hundred years the Popes
had been growing more and more poAverful, and
ruling over kings and princes — sometimes rebuk-
ing them manfully for their crimes, but too often
only interfering with what disturbed the worldly
power of the Church. Now Philip was a man of
evil life, and was, besides, very hard and grasping
in requiring money from the clergy. The Pope,
Boniface YIIL, was an old man, but full of fiery
vehemence ; and he sent a letter of reprimand,
178 Young Folks' History of France.
bidding the king release the Count of Flanders,
make x^eace, and exact no more from the clergy.
Philip was very angry, and the two went on writing
letters that made matters worse, until the Pope
threatened to depose the king ; and Philip sent off
to Anagni, where the Pope generall}^ lived, a French
knight, named Nogaret, and an Italian called
Sciarra Colonna, who had quarrelled with the Pope
and fled to France. They rode into Anagni, cry-
ing, " Long live the King of France ! death to
Boniface ! " at the head of a troop of worthless
fellows Avho had gathered round them. The people
of Anagni were so shocked that they never moved,
and the men went on to the church, where they
found the Pope, a grand old man of eighty-six,
seated calmly b}^ the altar in his robes, with his
tiara on his head. They rushed up to him, insult-
ing him and striking him on the cheeks ; indeed,
Colonna would have killed him on the spot but for
Nogaret. They dragged him out of the church,
and kept him prisoner three days ; but after that,
the townspeople recovered from their fright, rose,
rescued him, and conducted him safely to Rome ;
but what he had gone through had been too much
for him, and a few mornings later he was found
COL.O^:SA. STRIKING THE POPE.
Philip IV., The Fair, l8l
lying quite dead, tlie head of liis stick at his lips,
gnawed and covered with foam, and his white hair
stained with blood, as if in a fit of terror he had
dashed his head against the wall. This piteous
death was in the year 1303.
Another Pope was chosen ; but as soon as Philip
found that the new one was determined to control
him, he caused him to be poisoned, and then deter-
mined to get the future one into his hands. There
were a good many French cardinals who would,
he knew, vote for any one he chose ; and meeting
in secret the Archbishop of Bordeaux, the king
told him he should have their votes on six condi-
tions. Five of these related to the making up of
the old quarrel with Boniface ; the sixth Philip
would not tell then, but the archbishop swore it
should be fulfilled ; and the king then brought
about his election as Pope, when he took the name
of Clement Y.
To everyone's surprise, he chose to be crowned
at L5'ons instead of Rome, and then took up his
abode at Avignon, in Provence, which, though it
belonged to the empire, was so much in France as
to be entirely in the king's power. As long as the
Popes remained at Avignon, they were nothing
but tools to the kings of France ; and this really
182 Young Folks' History of France.
seems to have been the greatest misfortune that
happened to France. The power of the Popes was
stretched much too far, and their interference in
temporal matters was often wrong, but it was the
only authority that ever kept kings and princes in
order; and when the Popes lived on French
ground, and were afraid to reprove the lords of the
countr}^ there was nothing to hinder the evil ways
of either kings and nobles, and they went on from
bad to worse, unrestrained by the Church, the wit-
ness of truth.
Philip the Fair was a very greedy man, always
seeking after money, and oppressing his people
heavily to obtain it. Now, you remember that two
orders of soldier monks had been set up to defend
the Holy Sepulchre. Soon after St. Louis' last
crusade. Acre, the last spot that belonged to the
Christians, had been taken from them. The
Knights Hospitallers had settled in the island of
Rhodes, hoping some day to return ; but the
Knights Templars had gone to the houses in Europe,
where they used to train up young men to arms.
They were rich in lands, and, having nothing to do,
were proud and insolent. And Philip cast his
eyes on their great wealth, and told tlie Pope that
his sixth condition was that all the Templars should
PhUip IV., The Fair. . 183
be destroyed. Most of them were living in France,
but the others were invited to hold a great chapter
there ; and when almost all were come, horrible
accusations were made — that they were really
heathen, that no one came into their order without
being made to renounce his baptism and trample on
the Cross, that they murdered little children, and
other frightful stories ; and then five hundred and
two were imprisoned by the Inquisition, and
seventy-two tortured to make them confess.
Most of them were brave and denied it all ; but
there were a few who could not bear the pain, and
said whatever was put into their mouths. Then,
after being kept in prison two years, the rest were
sentenced, brought out in parties of fift}' and
burnt to death, while the Pope declared the order
dissolved, and gave the king all his possessions.
This was in 1311. The Grand Master, James de
Molay, was kept in prison three years longer, but
then was brought out at Paris, and burnt before
the king's palace garden. He was a fine old white-
bearded man ; and as he stood there in the fire, he
called on Clement, Pope of Rome, and Philip,
King of France, to appear before the judgment
seat of God — the first within forty days, the sec-
184 Young Folks* History of France.
ond within a year — to answer for their usage o£
him and his knights.
Before the fortieth day, Clement V. actually
died ; and before the year was out, Philip the Fair
sank away from consumption, and died in his forty-
sixth year, in the year 1314, leaving the most hate-
ful name in French history.
CHAPTER XVIII.
LOUIS X., HUTIN, .1814—1316.
PHILIP v., LE LONG, 1316—1322
CHARLES IV., LE BEL, . . . . . .1322.
PHILIP YL, 1350.
PHILIP the Fair left three sons — Louis, Philip,
and Charles — and one daughter, Isabel, who
was married to Edward of England. Louis X.
was called by the nickname of Hutin^ which is
said to mean the Peevish or Ill-tempered. He was
married to the young Queen of Navarre, in her
own right ; but he only reigned two years, and his
only son lived but five days. The French barons
declared it was against the old law of the Salic
Franks that their kingdom should fall to a woman,
so Louis's little daughter Joan was only to be Queen
of Navarre, while his brother, Philip Y. (Xe Long^
or the Tall), became king. He must have been as
cruel as his father, for there rose up in his time a
185
186 Young Ii^'oWs Mist or y of France.
foolish story that the fountains of water had been
poisoned by the lepers and the Jews, whereupon
he gave orders that they should suffer for it. They
were killed on the spot, or else burnt at the stake
throughout France, while the king and his nobles
seized the treasures of the Jews ] but in the midst
the king died, at only thirty years old, in the year
1322, leaving only four girls ; so that his brother,
Charles IV., reigned after him. It was during the
six years that Charles was on the throne that his
sister Isabel came from England with complaints of
her husband, Edward II., and succeeded in collect-
ing the knights, who helped her to dethrone him,
after which he was brought to a miserable end in
prison.
Every one believed that the sins of the wicked
father had been visited on these three sons — dying
young, and without heirs ; and the French were
glad when Charles the Fair died, in 1328, that their
kingdom should go to Philip YL, Count of Valois,
the son of the younger brother of Philip IV.,
Charles of Valois.
But Edward III. of England called himself the
right heir, declaring himself nearer in blood to his
uncle, Charles IV., than Philip of Valois, their first
cousin, could be. This was true ; but, then, if all
Philip VL 189
the daughters of the last three kings were shut out
from reigning, it was not reasonable that he should
pretend to a right through their aunt. At first,
though he put his claim forward, he seems to have
been willing to let it sleep, for he appeared before
the French king in the Cathedral at Amiens, and
did homage for the duchy of Aquitaine ; but there
was a certain Robert of Artois, who had been
deprived of what he thought his lawful inheritance,
and who was suspected of wanting to bring about
Philip's death by sorcery. He was said to have
made a waxen image of the king and stuck it full
of pins and set it before the fire, expecting that as
the wax raelted, so Philip would perish away and
die. Philip believed the story, and Robert was
obliged to fly to England, Avhere, out of hatred and
revenge, he stirred up the king to put forward his
claim, and to begin the war with France which is
sometimes called the Hundred Years' War. The
great cities in Flanders, where cloth was woven,
were friendly to the English, because in that peace-
able country the sheep that bore the wool could
feed quietly, and their supplies of material came
from thence. Besides, Philip had tried to make
them accept a count whom they hated, so they
drove him away, and invited Edward to Ghent.
190 Young Folhs^ History of France.
The French fleet tried to meet and stop him, bat
their ships were defeated and sunk, with great loss
of men, off Slays, in the year 1340.
Not long after, there was a great dispute about
the dukedom of Brittany, which was claimed by the
daughter of the elder brother, and by the younger
brother of the late duke. The niece had married
Charles de Blois ; the uncle was the Count de
Montfort. The King of, France took the part of
the niece, the King of England that of Montfort.
Before long, Montfort was made prisoner and sent
to Paris ; but his wife, the brave Joan, defended
his cause as well as any knight of them all. She
shut herself up in Hennebonne, and held out the
town while De Blois besieged her ; and when the
townsmen began to lose heart, and say they must
surrender, she bade them look out to the sea ; and
there was the English fleet coming to their aid.
Sir Walter Manny commanded the troops it
brought, and the first thing he did was to lead a
party to sally out and burn the French machines
for battering the town. When they came back,
Countess Joan came to meet them, and kissed all
the knights, like a right valiant lad}' that she was,
says the old chronicler Froissart, who has left us a
charming history of these times. The war in Brit-
"bapje them look out at thk sea."
Philip VL 193
tany lasted twenty-four years altogether. Montfort
made his escape from prison, but he died very soon
after he reached home ;' and his widow sent her
little son to be bred up in Edward's court in Eng-
land, while she took care of his cause at home.
The English were ver}- much hated and disliked in
Brittan}^ and seem to have been very fierce and
rough with the people, whose language they did
not understand ; and some of the knights who were
the greatest foes of all to the English grew up in
Brittany, more especially Bertrand du Guesclin
and Oliver de Clisson, but they were as yet boys.
Edward made his greatest attack on France in
the year 1346. Philip had gathered all the very
best of his kingdom to meet him. The knights of
France were nearly as strong as the knights of
England, but there was one great difference be-
tween the two armies, and that arose from the
harshness of the counts and barons. Every one
below them was a poor, miserable serf (unless he
lived in a town), and had never handled arms.
Now, in England there were farmers and stout
peasants, who used to practice shooting with the
bow once a week. So there were always sturdy
English archers to fight, and the French had
nothing of the same kind to meet them, and tried
194 Young Folks' History of France.
hiring men from Genoa. The battle was fought at
Ore 97, near Ponthieu ; and when it was to begin
by each troop of archers shooting a flight of arrows
at one another, it turned out that a shower of rain
which had just fallen had slackened the bow-strings
of the Genoese archers; but the Englishmen had
their bows safe in leathern cases, and their strings
were in full order, so the arrows galled the French
knights, and a charge was ordered to cut them
down. But full in the way stood the po<!)r Genoese,
fumbling to tighten their strings ; and the knights
were so angry at being hindered, that they began
cutting them down right and left, thus spending
their strength against their own army, so that it
was no wonder that they were beaten and put to
flight. King Philip himself had to ride as fast as
he could from the battle-field ; and coming to a
castle just as night set in, he blew his horn at the
gates, and when the warder called out to know who
was there, he answered, " Open, open ! it is the
fortune of France ! "
The English went on to besiege and take the city
of Calais ; and in Brittany Charles de Blois was
defeated and made prisoner ; and there was the
further misfortune of a horrible plague, called the
black death, raging all through France. Five
Philip VL 195
hundred people a-day died in the great hospital
called the Hotel Dieu, at Paris, and it was bad also
in England ; so that both kings were glad to have
a truce, and rest for a few years, though Edward
still called himself King of France, and the dispute
was far from settled. Philip paid his men by causing
the nation to pay a tax upon salt, Avhile Edward's
chief tax was on wool ; so while Philip called his
rival the wool merchant, Edward said that the
Valois did indeed reign by the Salic law Qsal being
the Latin for salt.)
The Counts of the Viennois, in the South of
France, used to be called Counts Dauphin, because
there was a dolphin in their coat of arms. The
Dauphin Humbert, having neither children nor
brothers, bequeathed his county to the king's eldest
grandson, Charles, on condition that it should
always be kept separate from the Crown lands.
Ever since that time the eldest son of the King of
France has always been called the Dauphin.
A year later Philip died, in the year 1350, after
a reign that had been little more than one long war.
CHAPTER XIX.
JOHN.
1350—1364.
IF Philip VI. had a reign which was all one. war,
it was much the same with his son John, who
thought himself a brave and honorable knight,
though he often did evil and cruel actions.
The little kingdom of Navarre, in the Pyrenees,
had passed from the daughter of Louis Hutin to
her son, Charles, called the Bad. In right of his
father, the Count D'Evreux, he was a French noble,
and he wanted to hold the highest office a noble
could hold — namely, that of Constable of France.
The Constable commanded all the armies, and was
the most mighty person in the realm next to the
king ; and when John gave the appointment to the
Lord Charles de la Cerda, Charles the Bad, in his
rage and disappointment, contrived to poison the
196
' ' TH IS WAY , J ATH iCK. '
John. 199
new constable ; and he was also said to have tried
to poison the Dauphin Charles ; and though the
dose failed to kill, it ruined the young man's health,
and in the end shortened his life. It was owing to
the Dauphin that Charles the Bad was seized at
last. He invited him to dinner, and appeared to be
very friendly ; but in the midst of the feast the
king appeared with a band of soldiers, seized the
King of Navarre, and carried him to prison. It
was yery treacherous ; but the Dauphin Charles,
young as he was, was much more cunning than his
father.
Charles the Bad was clever, and had many friends
who were angered by his imprisonment, and went
over to the cause of the King of England. Edward,
the Prince of Wales, who was at Bordeaux, the
capital of Gascony, took the opportunity of ad-
vancing into the French dominions, and John as-
sembled an army to meet and drive him back.
The battle was fought at Poitiers; John was
there, with his sons and his brother, and all his best
knights, and the battle Avas long and hotly fought.
The French did much better than at Crecy ; but
the English were too strong for them, though the
king was as brave as a lion, and struck vehemently
with his battle-axe, his youngest son, Philip, keep-
200 Young Folks' History of France.
jng close to him, and warning him where to strike.
" This way, father ! " or, " That way, father ! "
" To the right ! " " To the left ! " But at last the
father and son found themselves almost alone,
with all their men scattered and dispersed, and
nothing but enemies around. The king had lost
his helmet, and was slightly wounded, and greatly
worn out ; so he called to the first squire he saw —
one Denis de Morbeque — and finding that he was
a gentleman, surrendered to him. He was brought
to the Prince of Wales, who treated him with the
utmost kindness and courtesy, and did his best to
lighten the pain and humiliation of captivity.
The Dauphin had fled early in the day, and was
thought to have been the cause of the loss of the
battle. Everything fell into a deplorable state.
The Prince of Wales ruled the old English Gascon
territory at Bordeaux ; and though there was a
truce between the two kings, troops of soldiers —
Free Companions, as they called themselves —
roamed about, plundering and robbing all over
France, while the king was a prisoner in England.
The Dauphin was hated and despised, and had no
power at all ; and in Paris, a burgher named Stephen
Marcel was chosen provost, and led all the populace
to terrify the Government into doing what he
MURDEK OF THE MARSHALS.
John. 203
pleased. The mark of his followers was a hood,
half red and half blue ; and thinking that the
Dauphin's friends gave him bad advice, Marcel sud-
denly rushed into his presence, at the head of a
Avhole troop of Parisians, wearing these colors, and
demanded, " Will you put an end to the troubles,
and provide for the defence of the kingdom ? "
" That is not ni}^ part," said Charles, "but that of
those who receive the money of the taxes." Mar-
cel made a sign, and his followers murdered the two
noblemen who stood beside the Dauphin. The
prince, in terror, fell on his knees and begged for
his life ; and Marcel thrust one of the red and blue
hoods upon his head, and then told him, pointing
to the two corpses, " I require you, in the name of
the people, to consent to their death, for it is done
by the will of the people."
The Dauphin consented ; but he soon made his
escape, and took up arms against Marcel. Charles
of Navarre had been released from his prison, and
was fighting in the South of France ; and Charles
de Blois had been ransomed, and was fighting in
Brittany ; and to add to all these, the peasants, who
had been always ill-used and trampled down by the
nobles, began to rise against them. " Bon homme
Jacques'' had been the nickname given them by the
204 Young Folks' History of France.
nobles, and hence this rebellion was called the
Jacquerie, and a terrible one it was ; for the peas-
ants were almost savages, and whenever they could
surprise a castle, they murdered every one in it.
They set up a king from among them, and soon
one hundred thousand had arisen in Picardy and
Champagne ; but they were armed only with scythes
and axes, and the nobles soon put them down and
then were just as brutal themselves in their revenge.
The " King of the Jacques " was crowned with a
red-hot tripod, and hung ; and the poor wretches
were hunted down like wild beasts, and slaughtered
everywhere, and nothing was done to lessen the
misery that made them rebel.
The Dauphin beseiged Paris, and Marcel, find-
ing he could not hold out, invited the King of
Navarre to help him ; but another magistrate, who
hated Charles the Bad, contrived to attack Marcel
as he was changing the guard, killed him and six of
his friends and brought him back to Paris. This
was only the first of the many fierce and tumult-
uous outbreaks that have stained the fair city of
Paris with blood.
King John was so anxious to return that he prom-
ised to give up to Edward all that Henry II. and
Coeur de Lion had held ; but the Dauphin and the
--^
/^^
THE ATTACK ON MARCEL.
John. 207
States-General did not choose to confirm liis pro-
posal, thinking it better to leave him in prison,
than to weaken the kingdom so mnch. So Edward
invaded France again, and marched almost up to
Paris, intending to fight another battle ; but the
Dauphin had made up his mind never to fight a
a battle with the English again ; and between the
war and the Jacquerie, the whole country was bare
of inhabitants, cattle, or crops. The English army
was almost starved, and a frightful tempest did it
much damage ; so that Edward consented to make
peace and set John free, on condition that his two
sons should be given up as hostages for the pay-
ment of a great ransom, and a large part of Aqui-
taine ceded to England.
King John returned ; but he found the kingdom
in such a dreadful state of misery and poverty that
he did not collect money for the ransom, nor Avould
his sons remain as pledges for it. They were al-
lowed to live at Calais, and make short journeys
into France ; but they would not submit to this,
and at last stayed away altogether. John was much
grieved and ashamed, and said the only thing he
could do was to return and give liimself up as a
prisoner, since he could not fulfil the conditions of
208 Young Follcs' History of France.
liis release. When lie was entreated to remain at
home, he said, " Where should honor find a refuge
if not in the breasts of kings?" and accordingly
he went back to London, where he was welcomed
as a friend by King Edward, and there he died in
the year 1364. He left four sons — the Dauphin
Charles ; Louis, the Duke of Anjou ; John, Duke
of Berry ; and Philip, who had married the heiress
of Burgundy, and was made duke of that province.
CHAPTER XX.
CHARLES V.
1364—1380.
CHARLES v., in spite of his troubles as Dau-
phin, was a much abler man than his father
John ; and he had seen the best way to treat the
English enemy — namel}^, not to fight them, but to
starve them out.
The French knights could beat anyone except
the English ; and just now there professed to be
peace with Edward III., but with Charles the Bad
of Navarre there was still war, until a battle was
fought at Cocherel, between the French, under the
brave Breton knight, Bertrand du Guesclin, and
the Navarrese, under the great friend of the Black
Prince, the brave Gascon knight, the Captal de
Buch. Du Guesclin gained a great victor}^ and
made the Captal prisoner, and from that time no
209
210 Young Folks' History of France,
French knight was equal to hmi in fame. Thus
Charles the Bad had to make peace.
The young De Montfort, who had been brought
up in England, was by this time old enough to try
to fight for Brittany ; and though the kings were
at peace, the Prince of Wales lent him a troop of
English, commanded by the best captain in all
Europe, Sir John Chandos ; and at the battle of
Auray, Charles de Blois, who had so long striven
to win the duchy, was killed, and Du Guesclin was
made prisoner. After this, the king accepted Mont-
fort as Duke of Brittany, and this war was like-
wise over.
But after so many years of fighting, there were
a great many men who knew and cared for nothing
else. They could not be quiet. All they wanted
was a horse and armor, and some one to hire them
to fight, let them gain plunder, and take prisoners
to but to ransom. They called themselves Free
Companions, or Free Lances, and used to get some
skilful warrior to be their leader. When the wars
were over and nobody wanted to hire them, they
would take possession of some castle, and live b}^
plundering the travellers in the country round, so
that they were the most dreadful plague imaginable.
King Charles asked Du Guesclin how to get rid
Charles V. 211
of them, and Bertrand tlioiTglit of apian. Castille,
in Spain, had just then one of the wickedest kings
who ever lived, Peter the Crnel, who murdered his
wife (a cousin of Charles), and killed most of his
half-brothers, besides many other persons. One of
these brothers, Henry of Trastamere, managed to
escape, and came to France to beg for help ; and
Du Guesclin told the king that it would be an ex-
cellent way to get rid of the Free Companions to
draw them off into Spain. Charles consented, and
Du Guesclin invited their leaders to meet him ;
and when they found he would lead them, they all
consented, making sure of plenty of fighting and
plundering. As they rode past Avignon, they
frightened the Pope into giving them a large con-
tribution ; and as soon as they entered Castille,
Peter the Cruel fled away, and Henry was crowned
king. He kept Du Guesclin in his service, but sent
all the others back to France.
However, Peter came to Bordeaux, and showed
himself to the Black Prince as an ill-used, dis-
tressed king ; and Edward took up his cause, and
undertook to set him on the throne again. All the
Free Companions, who were coming back from
Spain, no sooner heard that the Prince was going
212 Young Folks'' History of France.
there, than they took seryice ^yith him to restore
the very king they had just dethroned. A great
battle was fought at Navareta, in which the Prince
was victorious. Du Guesclin was made prisoner,
and Henry of Trastamere fled for his life. Pedro
was placed on the throne once more ; but he kept
none of his promises to the English, and the}^ soon
perceived Avhat a horribly cruel and wicked wretch
he was. Sickness broke out among them, and they
went back to ipordeaux,. leaving him to his fate.
Every one in France was most anxious to have Du
Guesclin free again, and even the 'maidens of Brit-
tany are said to have spun day and night to earn
money for his ransom. As soon as the sum was
raised and he was at liberty, he-;returned to Spain
with Henry, and they chased Pedro into the castle
of Montiel, whence he came r.oiit in the night and
attempted to murder his brother, but in the struggle
was himself killed, to the great relief of all con-
cerned with him.
The Black Prince was, in the meantime, ill at
Bordeaux, and in trouble how to pay the Free
Companions, since Pedro had not given him the
promised sum. He was obliged to tax his Saxon
subjects, and this made them angry. They ap-
Charles V. 213
pealed to Charles Y., who was their suzerain, and
he summoned the prince to ap]3ear at Paris and
answer their complaint.
Edward said he should only come with his hel-
met on his head and sixty thousand men behind
him, and so the war began again ; but the Prince
was out of health, and could not fight as he used
to do, and the French king forbade his captains
even to give battle, even Du Guesclin, whom he
made Constable of France, and who grumbled at
being forbidden.
The war was carried on by sieges of castles,
which, one by one, fell into French hands for want
of means on the part of the English prince, to re-
lieve them.
Stung and embittered, at last he roused himself i
and though he could no longer mount his horse, he
went in a litter to besiege the city of Limoges, and
when it was taken, he sought his revenge in a ter-
rible massacre of all the inhabitants. This, his
saddest expedition, was his last. He went back to
England and never recovered. Governors were
sent to Bordeaux ; but they could do little against
the continually advancing French, and at last
nothinof in France was left to Edward but the
province of Gascony and the city of Calais. A
214 Young Folks^ History of France.
truce was made ; and before the end of it both the
great Ed\Yards were dead, and Richard II. on the
throne, under the regency of his uncles, who tried
to carry on the war, but still with no better fortune.
It was while besieging a little castle, named
Chateau Randon, that the brave Du Guesclin fell
sick of a fever and died. The English captain had
promised to surrender if help did not come to him
within a certain time ; and when he heard that the
great constable was dead, he would not yield to
any one else, but caused himself to be led to the
tent of the dead man, on whose breast he laid down
the keys of the castle. The king made Du Gues-
clin's friend, Oliver de Clisson, Constable in his
stead. He was a Breton too, a brave knight, and
a skilful leader ; but his brother had been made
prisoner by the English, and hung, and he had
made the savage vow that he would never spare the
life of an Englishman, so that he was called the
Butcher ; and it was a dreadful thing to fall into his
hands.
The king himself did not live much longer. He
had never entirely shaken off the effects of the
poison his bad namesake had given him, and knew
he should die young. He carefully instructed his
queen, Joan de Bourbon, how to protect his two
LAYINO THE KEY ON" DU GUESMN S BIER.
Charles V. 217
young sons, Charles and Louis ; but to liis great
grief she died first, and he was obliged to leave the
boys to the care of their uncles, when he died, on
the 16th of September, 1380, after a reign of so
much success that he is commonly known as Charles
the Wise.
CHAPTER XXI.
CHARLES VI.
1380—1396.
IT was an evil hour for poor young Charles YI.,
when, at twelve years old, he was left an orphan
king. His uncles — the Dukes of Anjou, Bcrri,
and Burgundy (his father's brothers), quarrelled
about the government, and he was allowed to grow
up little heeded or restrained, and with all his pas-
sions unchecked.
The Church was in a most unsettled state. The
Popes, while living at Avignon, were at the beck
of the French kings, and this could not be borne
by the other lands of the Western Church. Be-
sides, they and their cardinals had not enough to do
in this little town, and idleness led to all kinds of
Avickedness, while their proper abode at Rome was
left to wikl tumults and confusion. So at last, in
218
Charles VI. 219
the year 1376, Pope Gregory XI. liaci decided on
going back to Rome, though Charles V. and all the
cardinals of French birth did all they could to pre-
vent him. He died two years after he came there ;
and then all the cardinals who wanted to stay in
Italy chose one Pope, and all the cardinals who
wished to live at Avignon chose another, and went
back with him. So there were two Popes, the real
Pope and the anti-Pope, and this made a grievous
division, which is known as the Great Schism.
The French and all their friends held by the Pope
at Avignon, the English and all theirs by the Pope
at Rome ; and things grew worse than ever, for
both Popes were very poor and wanted as much
money as they could ; and they were also afraid to
offend either kings or bishops, for fear they should
leave their party, and so sin and wickedness went
on unchecked.
One of the proudest nobles was Louis, Count of
Flanders. He had many rich cities in his county,
where almost all the best cloth, linen, and lace of
the time was made, and where the burghers were
rich and resolute. There was always much dislike
and distrust between the counts and the cities ;
and Louis was so severe, that at last the men of
Ghent rose against him and shut their gates, choos-
220 Young Folks'^ History of France.
ing as their leader Philip von Artevelde, the son of
the brewer, Jacob von Artevelde, who had been a
friend of Edward III. Artevelde led them out to
fight with the count, gained a great victory, and
hunted him into the city of Bruges. There he
was as much hated as he was in Ghent ; all the
people in the streets rose up against him, and no-
body would give him shelter, till at last he found
himself in the house of a poor widow who had
sometimes received alms at his gate. He begged
her to hide him, and she bade him creep under the
bed, where her three little children were lying
asleep. He had only just time to do so, when his
enemies burst open the door, declaring he had gone
in there ; but the widow bade them look in, and
when they saw only the bed full of children, they
thought he could not be there, and went away.
In the morning he managed to get out of the city
and escaped to Paris where he begged the king and
his uncles to come to his help. He had but one
daughter, who was to marry the son of the Duke
of Burgundy ; so it was their interest to bring the
Flemish towns to obedience, and the young king
was very eager to make his first campaign. All the
revolted burghers came out to battle with the
knights and gentlemen, but they could not make
Charles VL 221
head against such a well-tried old leader as the
Constable de Clisson, though they fought desper-
ately ; and at the battle of Rosbecque twenty-six
thousand men were killed, and Philip von Arte-
velde was trampled to death in the flight.
The young king loved and admired the Constable
de Clisson more than any one else ; but the old
man was much hated by many others for his harsh-
ness and cruelty ; and one night in the streets of
Paris, he was set upon by some murderers, who
wounded him badly, and he was only saved by fall-
ing against a house door, which gave way with his
weight, so that he fell into a dark passage, where
his enemies left him for dead, and fled away into
Brittan}^ The king demanded that they should be
sent back to be put to death, but the Duke of Brit-
tany, who hated Clisson, would not give them up.
Charles made sure that the duke had set them on,
and in a great rage declared he would lay all Brit-
tany waste. He collected his troops and set out,
but a strange thing happened as he was riding
through the forest of Mans, on a burning hot sum-
mer day. A man, probably mad, rushed out from
the bushes, caught his bridle, and cried, " Ride no
further, king ; thou art betrayed ! " The man was
drawn away ; but presently after, as they rode on.
222 Young Folks' History of France.
a page who had charge of the. king's lance fell
asleep on horseback, and let the point ring against
the helmet of the man in front. This must have
made the king fancy the treason had begun, and
becoming frantic that moment, he drew his sword
and rushed upon his followers, crying, " Down with
tlie traitors I " He killed four, but the others saved
themselves by pretending to fall before the stroke ;
and at last, as his strength became spent, a tall,
strong knight sprang on his horse behind him and
overpowered him. He Avas carried back to Mans,
where he had a brain fever ; but he recovered and
was for some time in perfect health, governing, not
perhaps well, but with kind intentions. He married
Isabel of Bavaria ; and had she taken better care
of him, his life would have been far happier ; but
she was a dull, and selfish woman, who cared more
for good eating and amusement than for her hus-
band and children, whom she neglected greatly.
At a great festival, the king and five of his nobles
dressed themselves up as wild men of the woods,
in close garments, covered with pitch, with long
loose flakes of tow, hanging to them to represent
hair, and green boughs round their heads and waists.
Chained together, they danced in among the ladies,
who were to guess who they were. The king's
•*!f:-
iV-
f^^^^I^^
"thou art betkayed.
Charles VI. 225
brother (the Duke of Orleans) held a torch so near
one of them, the better to see who it was, that he
set fire to the tow, and the flames spread to the
whole party. Four were burnt to death, one saved
himself by breakmg the chain and leaping into a
tub of water, aud the king himself was preserved
by the Duchess of Berri, who threw her mantle
over him ; but the shock had been so great that his
insanity came on again, and he was never sensible
for long together through the rest of his life. But
he still was supposed to rule France, and so the
power was in the hands of whoever had possession
of him, and this at first was his uncle Philip, Duke
of Burgund}^.
Still, as there was peace with England, the
knights thought of crusades. Indeed, the Turks,
under their great leader Bajazet, were beginning to
make their way into Europe ; and the eldest son of
the Duke of Burgundy, John the Fearless, set out
with a party of French knights to succor the Hun-
garians against them. They came just as peace
had been sworn to on either side ; but it seemed
such a pity that their aid should be wasted, that
the Hungarians broke their word, and attacked the
Turks. But their breach of faith met a due reward,
for the whole army was defeated and butchered.
226 Young Folks' History of France,
and John himself, with twenty-seven nobles, alone
lived to be ransomed.
Afterwards, Marshal Boucicault led another
troop to help the Emperor of Constantinople,
Palseologos, and brought him home to France to
visit the king, and ask further aid from the princes
of Europe.
CHAPTER XXII.
BURGUNDIAKS AND ARMAGXACSo
1415—1422.
N'OTHING could be more sad than the state of
France under the mad king. As long as his
uncle (the Duke of Burgundy) lived, he was not so
ill cared for, and the country was under some sort
of government ; but when Duke Philip died, and
the dukedom passed to his son, John the Fearless,
there was a perpetual quarrel between this rough
and violent duke and the king's brother Louis,
Duke of Orleans. The Duchess of Orleans — a
gentle Italian lady (Yalentina of Milan) — was the
only person who could calm the poor king in his
fits of frenzy, and the friends of Burgundy de-
clared she bewitched him and made him worse. In
the meantime, Queen Isabel would do nothing but
amuse herself with the Duke of Orleans, and the
king and her little children were left without attend-
227
228 Young Folks'^ History of France.
ants, and often without proper clothes or food.
The people of Paris hated Orleans, and loved
the Duke of Burgundy, and this last was resolved
to get the king into his power. So one night, as
the Duke of Orleans was going home from supper
with the queen, he was set upon by murderers and
killed in the streets of Paris ; and what was even
more horrible, the Duke of Burgundy caused a
priest to preach a sermon defending the wicked
act. The Duchess of Orleans came with her sons
and knelt at the king's feet, imploring for the mur-
derer to be punished ; but he could do nothing for
her, and she went home and died broken hearted.
However, her son, the young Duke of Orleans, mar-
ried the daughter of the Count of Armagnac, who
took up his cause so vehemently, that all the friends
of the House of Orleans were called Armagnacs,
and were known by wearing a white scarf over the
left shoulder, Avhile the Burgundians wore blue
hoods.
The king's eldest son, the Dauphin Louis, was
sixteen years old, and tried to get into power; but
he w^as a foolish, idle youth, whom no one heeded.
When he heard that the new king, Henry Y.,
meant to invade France, Louis sent him a present
of a basket of tennis balls, saying they were his
THE NIGHT BEFORE THE BATTLE AGINCOTTRT.
Burgundians and Armagnaes. 231
most fitting weapons, considering his way of life as
the madcap prince. Henry answered that he hoped
to return balls from the mouths of cannon against
Paris ; and it was not long before he actually crossed
the channel, and laid siege to Harfleur, in Normandy.
He soon took it, for no aid was sent to it ; and
he proclaimed himself king of France, like Edward
ni. before him, and proceeded to endeavor to con-
quer the country. The Dauphin collected an army,
and marched to intercept him, as he was on the way
from Harfleur to Calais to obtain fresh supplies.
The French army greatly outnumbered the English,
and thought it would be easy to cut them off, see-
ing them hungry, sick, and worn with a long
march. But the carelessness, the dissensions, and
the insubordination of the French army would have
caused it to be beaten by a far less skilful general
than Henry Y. ; and though each noble and knight
was personally valiant, this did little good when
they were not united. There was an immense
slaughter at this far-famed battle of Agincourt, and
many noted prisoners were taken by the English-,
especiall}^ the Duke of Orleans ; and Henrj^ ti^ould
not allow these nobles to be ransomed, but kept
them in captivity in England, until he should have
finished winning the kingdom.
232 Young Folks' History of France,
The Dauphin Louis escaped from the battle, but
died soon after ; his next brother (the Dauphin.
John) did not survive him long ; and the third
brother (the Dauphin Charles) was entirely under
the power of the Armagnac party, as well as his
father and mother.
But the Count of Armagnac was so insolent that
queen Isabel could bear it no longer, and fled to
the Duke of Burgundy's protection ; and soon after
the people of Paris rose against the Armagnacs, and
murdered every one whom they found belonging
to it. The count himself was horribly gashed, and
his body was dragged up and down the streets.
The poor king was in a fit of madness in his palace ;
the Dauphin was carried away by his friend, Sir
Tanneguy du Chastel ; and for a whole month
there were nothing but savage murders throughout
Paris, of all who were supposed to be Armagnacs,
until the queen and the Duke of Burgundy ar-
rived, and restored something like order.
No one, of course, had leisure to do anything to
relieve Kouen, which Henry Y. was besieging, and
took in spite of the citizens holding out bravely.
The queen and duke determined to make peace
with him, and met him at a meadow near Pontoise,
where beautiful embroidered tents were pitched ;
MURDER OF THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY.
Burgunclians and Armagnacs. 235
ai^-d they lielcl a conference, in which Henry asked
in marriage Catherine, the youngest daughter of
Charles and Isabel, with the whole of the provinces
that had once belonged to the English kings as her
dowry — Normandy, Aquitaine, and alL If this
were refused, he would conquer the whole kingdom
for himself.
No promises were absolutely made. The Duke
of Burgundy could not make up his mind to give
up so large a portion of his native realm, and be-
gan to consider of going over to the Dauphin and
helping him to defend himself. A meeting was
arranged for the duke and Dauphin on the bridge
of Montereau ; but Tanneguy du Chastel and the
prince's other friends had no intention of letting
the bo}' get into the power of the great dnke, and
during the conference the}^ treacherously stabbed
John the Fearless to the heart. His murder of the
Duke of Orleans was thus visited upon him, but
the crime Avas dreadful in those who committed it.
The consequence was that his son Philip, called the
Good, went entireh^ over to the English ; and be-
fore long Henry V. was married to Catherine, and
was to be Regent of France as long as poor Charles
lived, and after that, king, the Dauphin being dis-
inherited as a murderer.
236 Young Folks' History of France.
All the North of France had been conquered by
the English, and the Dauphin and his friends had
retired to the South. Thence they sent to the
Scots to ask for help, and many brave Scotsmen
came, glad of a chance of fighting with the English.
Henry had gone home to England to take his bride,
and had left his brother, the Duke of Clarence, in
command, when, as theEnglish were marching into
Anjou, the Scots fell on them at Beauje and
defeated them, killing the Duke of Clarence.
Henry came back in haste, and again carried all
before him. He took the town of Meaux, where a
horrible robber lived, cruelly preying on the inhab-
itants of Paris; but the siege lasted the whole
winter. Henry caught cold there, and never was
well again, though he kept his Whitsuntide at Paris
with great state. Soon after, he set out for another
campaign, but he became so ill on the journey that
he had to be carried back to Yincennes, and there
died. No one of all his own children had ever been
so good to poor King Charles as Henry had been,
and the loss at last broke his heart. He wept and
wailed constantly for his good son Henry, pined
away, and died only three months later, in October,
1422, after thirty years of madness.
CHAPTER XXIII.
CHARLES VII.
1422—1461.
THOUGH all history counts the reign of Charles
VII. as beginning from the death of his un-
happy father, yet it was really the infant Henry,
son of his sister Catherine and of Henry V. of
England, who was proclaimed King of France over
the grave in which Charles VI. was buried, and
237
238 Young Folks' History of France.
who was acknowledged tbroughont France, as far
as Loire, while his uncle, the Duke of Bedford,
acted as Regent.
Charles YII. was proclaimed king by the Armag-
nacs, but most people called him the Dauphin, and
many termed him the King of Bourges, for he lived
in that little town, never seeming to trouble himself
about the state of his kingdom, but only thinking
how to amuse himself from day to day, and some-
times even talking of fleeing to Scotland, and
leaving everything to the English.
Bedford, in the meantime, determined to push on
the work of conquest, and sent the Earl of Salis-
bury to lay siege to Orleans ; but the place Avas
bravely defended, and Salisbury was killed by a
shot in the throat while looking on at the works.
Soon after, as some stores were being sent to the
English, a party of French nobles resolved to stop
them, and fell upon the wagons. The English came
out to defend them, and there was a general battle,
which is known as the Battle of Herrings, because
the provisions chiefly consisted of salt fish, intended
to be eaten in Lent.
The siege lasted on, but a wonderful aid came to
the French. In the summer of 1425 a j^oung girl,
named Joan d'Arc, as she was in her father's little
Charles VIL 239
garden, thought she was called by the Angel St.
Michael, and the Virgin Saints, Catherine and Mar-
garet, to deliver her country and lead the king to
be crowned at Kheims. At first no one would be-
lieve her, but she was so earnest that at last the
king heard of her, and sent for her. He received
her by torchlight, and standing in the midst of
many nobles, more richly dressed than he was ; but
she knew him at once among them all, and led him
a little apart, when she told him things that he de-
clared no one else could have known but himself,
and which made him sure she must have some un-
earthly knowledge. She said her Voices directed
her to go and fetch a marvellous sword from the
shrine of St. Catherine, at Fierbois, and with
this in her hand she led the troops to dri^^e the
English from Orleans ; but she never herself fought
or struck a blow ; she only led the French, who had
such trust in her, that wherever she led they will-
ingly followed. The English soldiers, on the other
hand, believed her to be a witch, and fled in horror
and dismay, leaving their leaders, who stood firm,
to be slain. Thus it was that she succeeded in en-
tering Orleans and delivering it from the siege.
Thenceforth she was called the INIaid of Orleans,
and victory seemed to follow her. She fought in
240 Young Folks'' IKstorij rf France.
the name of Heaven, and did all she could to
make her followers holy and good, rebuking them
for all bad lang^uao-e or excess ; and at last she had
the great joy of opening the way to Rheims, the
city where all the French kings had been crowned
ever since the beginning of the Meerwings. She
saw Charles VII. crowned and anointed, and then
she begged to go home to her cottage ; but the king
and his council would not permit this, because she
was such an encouragement to their men, and a
terror to the English. But her hope and confidence
were gone, and the French captains did not like
her, though their men did ; and at Compiegne the
governor shut the gates, and left her outside to be
made prisoner by the Burgundians. She was kept
in prison a long time — first in Burgundy, and then
at Rouen — and tried before French and Burgun-
dian bishops, who decided that her Voices had been
delusions of Satan, and her victories his work ;
therefore, that she ought to be burnt as a witch.
To the eternal disgrace of Charles VIL, he never
stirred a finger to save her, and she was burnt to
death in the market-place at Rouen.
No one ever deserved less to win back a kingdom
than Charles. He amused himself with one un-
worthy favorite after another ; but there was a
JOAN OF AKO EXAMINED IN PBISON,
Ohartes VIZ 243
brave spirit among his knights and nobles, and the
ablest of them was Arthur, Count de Richemont,
brother to the Duke of Brittany, and Constable of
France. As they grew stronger, the English grew
weaker and less prudent. The Duke of Burgundy
was offended, and made his peace with the King of
France ; and the Duke of Bedford soon after died
at Rouen, worn out with care and trouble.
Step by step, and bit by bit, did the French king
regain his dominion. When his cause began to
look hopeful, he shook off his sluggishness, and
came in person to receive the submission of Paris,
and to reconquer Normandy. But the Avar was
not finally ended till the year 1453, when Bordeaux
itself was taken by the French; and thus finished the
hundred years' war that Edward III. had begun.
Charles VII. was not at all a foolish person when
once he chose to exert himself. When the war was
over, and the bands of men-at-arms had nothing to
do, he managed better than his grandfather, Charles
V. ; for he laid them under strict rules, and gave
them pay, so that they made him stronger, instead
of being a torment to the whole countrj'. But the
nobles were very angry, and rose in an insurrection,
which the Dauphin Louis joined, chiefly because he
thought it would give his father trouble : but when
244 Young FolM History of France.
he found the king too strong for the rebels, he made
his peace, and left them to their fate.
Charles was a prosperous man, and established
peace. In the church, too, there was peace ; for at
the council held by the Lake of Constance, in the
year 1415, the rival Popes of Rome and Avignon
had both been made to resign, and a new one had
been elected, who was reigning at Rome ; but a
great deal of evil had grown up during the Great
Schism, which had not been remedied, and things
were growing worse and worse ; for if religion was
not rightly taught, sin was sure to get unrestrained.
One of the worst parts of Charles's nature was
that he was so cold and ungrateful. The merchant,
Jacques Coeur, had counselled him and lent him
money, and done more than any one else to bear
him through his troubles ; and yet he let false and
ridiculous accusations be brought forward, on which
this great man was stripped of all his property, and
sent away to die in exile. Yet Charles's name in
history is the Well-served ! But his son, Louis the
Dauphin, hated him, and in a cunning, bitter way
did all he could to vex and anger him. After
many quarrels, Louis fled from court, and asked
the protection of Duke Philip of Burgundy, who
had become the most magnificent and stately of
Charles VIZ 245
European princes, and hoped to make Mmself or
his son king of the Low Countries.
The old kino^ lived in continual fear of this son
of his, and at last fancied that Louis meant to
poison him, and refused to take any food or drink,
until he lost the power of swallowing ; and thus
this cold-hearted, ungrateful king died a miserable
death, in the year 1461. His coldness had made
everyone the more admire the splendid and gen-
erous Duke of Burgund}', whose riches and liber-
ality were the talk of all, and whose court was the
most stately in existence. Through his mother he
had inheiited Flanders, with all the rich manufac-
turing towns ; and Holland, with her merchant
cities ; and his court was full of beauty and luxury.
CHAPTER XXIV.
LOUIS XI.
1461—1483.
LOUIS XI. was one of the cleverest of men,
but also one of the most crafty and cruel, and
who has left the most hateful name in history. The
one thing he cared for was to be powerful, and no
sense of truth or pity would stop him in bringing
this about. But it was not for state or splendor
that he cared. He wore the meanest and most
shabby clothes, and an old hat, surmounted by little
leaden images of the saints, which he would take
down and invoke to help him. For though his re-
ligion could have been good for nothing, since it
did not keep him from ever committing any crime,
he was wonderfully superstitious. He must really
have been taught, like all of his Church, that the
saints did not bestow benefits, and could only be
,246
Louis XL 249
asked to intercede for them ; but he not only prayed
to them direct, but to their images ; and it actually
seems that he thought that if he told one image of
the Blessed Virgin of some crime, or made it some
promise, it was a different thing from telling another.
His court fool once overheard him at his devo-
tions, and thought them so absurd and foolish that
he could not help telling of them. The truth was
that Louis had no love for God or man, he had only
fear ; and so tried to bribe the saints to keep from
him the punishments he knew he deserved, by fine
promises of gifts at their shrines. And his fear of
man made him shut himself up in a grim castle at
Plessis-les-Tours, with walls and moats all round,
and a guard of archers from Scotland, posted in
iron cages on the battlements, to shoot at any dan-
gerous person. He did not like the company of
his nobles and knights, but preferred that of his
barber, Oliver le Daim, and his chief executioner,
Tristan I'Hermite ; and whoever offended him, if
not put to death, was imprisoned in the castle of
Loches, often in an iron cage, so small that it was
impossible to stand upright or lie at full length.
He had one brother, the Duke of Berri, whom
he feared and hated, persecuting him till the Duke
of Burgundy took the young man's part ; butLoui^
250 Young Folks' History of France,
managed to break up their alliance, and get his
brother back into his own hands, and then to poison
him.
The old duke, Philip the Good, died just after
Louis came to the throne, and his son, Charles the
Bold, was a brave, high-spirited prince, with much
that was noble and earnest about him, though A^ery
ambitious, and even more bent than his father on
making his dukedom into a kingdom, reaching from
the German Ocean to the Alps. To upset this
power was Louis's great object. First, he began to
stir up the turbulent towns of Flanders to break
out against Charles ; and then, while this was at
work, he came to visit him at his town of Peronne,
hoping to talk him over, and cajole him with polite
words. But what the king had not expected came
to pass. The mischief he had been brewing at
Liege broke out suddenly ; and the people rose in
tumult, killed the duke's officers, and shut their
gates. No wonder Charles went into a great rage ;
and since Louis had put himself into a trap, thought
it only fair to close the door on him. He kept him
there till the French army had been summoned,
and helped to reduce and punish Li^ge ; besides
which Louis made all manner of oaths, which, of
course, he never meant to keep.
# ::'^my:m
S%^i')"
IKTEKVIBW OF LOUIS XI. AND CHARLES THE BOLD.
Louis XL 253
King and duke hated one another more than
ever ; and Charles, who had married the sister of
Edward lY . of England, promised to aid the English
if they would come to conquer France. Then
Edward should have all the western parts, and he
all the eastern. Edward actually came, with one
of the finest armies that had ever sailed from
England ; but the Duke of Burgundy had been
drawn into war with the German emperor and could
not join him ; and Louis sent cunning messages and
bribes to Edward and his friends, to persuade him
to go away without fighting. The two kings met
on the bridge of Pecquiguy, across the Somme, with
a great wooden barrier put up between, for fear
they would murder one another ; and they kissed
each other through the bars, while the two armies
looked on — the English ashamed, and the French
well pleased, but laughing at them for going back
in this dishonorable way.
Charles the Bold would have gone on with the
war, but Louis stirred up fresh enemies for him in
Switzerland. The French king sent secret messen-
gers into the Swiss towns and cantons to set them
against the duke. The town of Basle rose, and
murdered Charles's governor, and then joined the
young Duke of Lorraine, his bitter enemy, and
254 Young J^olJcs^ History of France,
made war on liim. Charles was beaten in two
battles, at Morat and Granson ; and at last, when
he was besieging Nancy (the capital of Lorraine),
the wicked Count Campobasso, the commander of
his hired Italian troops, on Epiphany night, be-
trayed him to the Swiss, opened the gates of the
camp, and went over to the enemy. There was a
great slaughter of the Burgundians ; and after it
was over, the body of the brave Duke Charles was
found, stripped naked and gashed, lying half in and
half out of a frozen pool of water.
He only left one daughter, named Mary. His
dukedom of Burgundy could not go to a woman,
so that returned to France ; but Mary had all
Flanders and Holland. Her father had betrothed
her to Maximilian of Austria (the son of the
German Emperor) ; and when Louis was stirring
up the towns to rebel against her, she sent her be-
trothed a ring as a token to beg him to come to her
help. He did so at once, and they were married,
and were most happy and prosperous for five years, .
till Mary was killed by a fall from her horse, and
her baby son Philip had her inheritance.
So Louis obtained the French part of the duchy
of Burgundy. His mother, (Mary of Anjou) had
been the sister of the Duke of Anjou, who had been
Louis XL 255
adopted as the son of Queen Jane of Naples, the
descendant of Charles of Anjou, St. Louis's brother.
Rene, Duke of Anjou, his brother (the father of
our Queen Margaret), had never been able to get
the kingdom of Naples, though he was always called
King Rene, but he did get the county of Provence,
which belonged to it ; and there he led a cheerful,
peaceable life, among painters, poets and musicians,
and was one of the few good men of his time. His
wife had been Duchess of Lorraine in her own right,
and the young Duke of Lorraine who fought with
Charles the Bold, was the son of his eldest daughter,
for all his sons died young. Louis could not take
away Lorraine from the young duke ; but he did
persuade old King Rene at his death to leave the
French kings all his claims to the kingdom of
Naples — a very unhappy legacy, as you will see.
Louis had three children — Anne, who married
the Duke of Bourbon's brother, the Lord of Beaujeu,
and whom he loved ; and Jane, a poor, deformed,
sickly girl, whom he cruelly teased because she was
ugly, so that she used to hide behind her sister to
escape his eye. She wanted to go into a convent,
but he forced her to marr}' her cousin Louis, Duke
of Orleans, who made no secret that he hated the
very sight of her, though she was as good and meek
256 Young Folk's History of France.
as possible. Charles the Dauphin was sicMy, too,
and the king himself had lost his health. He was
in great dread of death — sent for a hermit from
Italy (Francis de Paula) to pray for him, and
vowed to give silver and gold images and candle-
sticks and shrines to half the saints if they would
save him ; but death came to him at last, in 1483,
just as the wicked Richard III. had gained the crown
of England.
CHAPTER XXV.
CHARLES VIII.
1483—1498.
YOUNG Charles VIII. was but nine years old
when he came to the crown. He was a weakly
boy, with thin legs and large head, but very full of
spirit. His father had never cared about his learn-
ing, saying that to know how to dissimulate was
all that signified to a king ; and his sister Anne, the
257
258 Young Folks' History of France.
Lady of Beaujeu, who had charge of him and his
kingdom, thought like her father, and took no pains
to teach him. He read nothing but poems and
romances about knights and ladies, dragons and en-
chanters ; but he really did gain the best lessons
they could teach him, for instead of learning dis-
simulation, he hated it. He never deceived any-
one, never broke his word, was always courteous ;
and so far from showing mean spite, like his father,
he never wilfully grieved or vexed any one of any
sort through his whole life.
At first the Lady of Beaujeu was taken up with
quarrels with their cousin and brother-in-law, the
Duke of Orleans, who thought he had a better right
to be Regent than a woman ; and when he could
not rule, went off to Brittany and made mischief
there. The Duke of Brittany had no son, and
everybody wanted to marry his little daughter
Anne. Orleans himself had hopes of getting him-
self divorced from his poor, good Jane, and marry-
ing this young girl ; and at last a battle was fought
between the Bretons and French, in which Orleans
was knocked down, and made prisoner. He was
sent off to one castle after another ; but his good
wife Jane always followed him to do her best to
comfort him, and never left him except to try and
Charles VIII. 259
gain his pardon ; but the Lady of Beanjen knew
better than to let him out as long as Anne of Brit-
tany was not married. Indeed, the Lady thought
the best thing would be if young Charles could
marry Anne, and join the great dukedom to his
dominions.
But on the one hand, Charles was betrothed to
Maximilian's daughter Margaret, and Anne to Max-
imilian himself; and on the other, there was nothing
the Bretons hated so much as the notion of being
joined, on to the French. They wanted the poor
^irl ©f fourteen ro marry a grim old baron, Alan de
Albret, who had eight children already, because
they thought he would fight for the duchy. In the
midst of the dispute, the Duke of Brittany died,
and poor young Anne had to strive for herself —
on the one side against the French, who wanted to
get her duch}'' into their hands ; and on the other,
against her own Bretons, who wanted to force her
into taking old Alan d' Albret. She waited in vain
for Maximilian, hoping he would come to her, as he
had once come to Mary of Burgundy ; and he was
setting off, when his son's Flemish subjects, jealous
of his raising troops, rose in tumult ; so that he had
to hide in an apothecary's shop, till he was carried^
to prison in the castle at Bruges.
260 Young Folks' History of France.
Anne of Beaujeu, in the meantime, raised an
army and entered Brittany, taking one town after
another. Still Anne of Brittany held out in her
city of Rennes. But late one evening a young
gentleman, with a small suite, came to the gates
and desired to see the duchess. It was the king;
and so sweet in manner, so gentle and knightly was
he, that Duchess Anne forgot her objections, and
consented to marry him. And so the duchy of
Brittany was joined to the crown of France. The
worst of it was, that Charles YIII. had ' been be-
trothed to Maximilian's daughter Margaret ; but
his sister cared little for scruples, and he was still
under her charge. As soon as Charles and Anne
were married, the Duke of Orleans was released.
Charles had always lived on romances, and wanted
to be a king of romance himself. So he recollected
the right to the kingdom of Naples which old King
Rene had left to his father, and he gathered to-
gether one of the most splendid armies that ever
was seen in France to go and conquer it for him-
self. Nobody in Italy was ready to oppose him,
for the cities were all quarrelling among themselves ;
and the Pope who was reigning then, Alexander
VI., was one of the wickedest men who ever lived.
All good men hoped that this young king would
Charles VIIL 263
set things to rights — call a council of the Church,
and have the court of Rome purified ; but Charles
was a mere youth who cared as yet chiefly for mak-
ing a grand knightly display ; and yet he could
not even keep his army in order, so that they did
dreadful mischief to the people in Italy, and made
themselves very much hated. He was crowned
King" of Naples, and then left a division of his
army to guard the kingdom, while he rode back
again the whole length of Italy, and on the way
claimed the duchy of Milan for his brother-in-law,
the Duke of Orleans, whose grandmother, Valen-
tina Visconti, had been a daughter of the Duke of
Milan.
The Italian States, however, had all leagued
against him, and a great army gathered together to
attack him at Fornova. Then he shewed all the
high spirit and bravery there was in him. He
reall}^ seemed to grow bigger with joy and courage ;
he fought like a lion, and gained a grand victory,
so that he could go home to Queen Anne feeling
like a true knight.
But more goes to make a king than knighthood,
and he did not keep up what he had conquered,
nor send men or provisions to his army in Naples ;
so they were all driven out by the great Spanish
264 Young Folks' History of France,
captain, Gonzalo de Cordova, and only a remnant
of them came home to France, in a miserable con-
dition.
Charles began to think more deeply as he grew
older. He lost both his infant sons, and his grief
changed him a good deal. He read better books
than the romances of chivalry ; and as he had learnt
truth, honor, and kindness before, so now he iearnt
piety, justice and firmness. He resolved to live like
St. Louis, and began, like him, sitting under the
oak-tree to hear the causes of the rich and poor,
and doing justice to all.
Above all, he knew how vain and foolish he had
been in Italy, and what a great opportunity he had
thrown away of trying to get the terrible evils that
were going on among the Pope and his cardinals
cured, by helping the good men left in Italy, to-
gether with Maximilian and Henry YII., to call a
council of the Church, and set matters to rights.
He was just beginning to make arrangements for
another expedition to make up for his former mis-
takes, when, one day, as he was going through a
dark passage leading to the tennis court at Blois,
he struck his forehead against the top of a doorway,
was knocked backward, taken up senseless, and
after lying in that state for a couple of hours, died.
CHARLES virr.
Charles VIIL 267
in the twenty-ninth year of his life and the fif-
teenth of his reign, in 1498. He was so much
loved that one of his servants died of grief, and liis
noble temper had trained up in France such a race
of knightly men as perhaps has never been seen at
any other time.
CHAPTER XXYL
LOUIS xir.
1498—1515.
CHAELES VIII. had lost both his children, so
the throne went to Louis, Duke of Orleans,
grandson to the second son of Charles V. He was
a kindly man when selfishness did not come in his
way, and he was much admired for saying, when
asked to punish some of his old enemies, that the
King of France forgot all injuries to the Duke of
Orleans. The first thing he did, however, was to
bribe the wicked old Pope, Alexander YL, to sep-
arate him from his good, faithful wife, Jane, who
went into a convent and spent the rest of her life
in praying for him ; while he married Anne of
Brittany, in order to keep her duchy united with
the crown. She was a very noble and high-spirited
queen, and kept her court in such excellent order,
268
Louis XIL 269
that the time of good Queen Anne has always been
looked back npon as the very best time of the
French court.
Louis was a vain man, and could not rest till he
had done as much as Charles VIII. So he allied
himself with the Pope, set off into Italy with an-
other brilliant army, and seized Milan. He did
not himself go to Naples, but he sent thither an
army, who seized a large portion of the kingdom ;
but then the Spanish King Ferdinand persuaded
Louis to make peace, and divide the kingdom of
Naples in half. But while the two kings and their
ministers were settling where the division should
be, the soldiers in the kingdom itself were con-
stantly quarrelling, and the war went on there just
as if the kings were not making a treaty. At first
the French had the advantage, for their knights
were courage itself, especially one whose name was
Bayard, and who was commonly called " the fear-
less and blameless knight." The Spaniards, with
Gonzalo de Cordova, their captain, were shut up in
the city of Barletta, and stood a long and weary
siege ; but he was wonderfully patient, and held
out till fresh troops came out to him from Spain,
and then beat the French completely at the battle
270 Young Folks' History of France.
of Cerignola, and then drove them out, city by city,
castle by castle, as he had done once before.
The Italians themselves hated both French and
Spaniards alike, and only wanted to get Italy free
of them ; but instead of all joining openly together
against them, their little states and princes took
different sides, according to what they thought most
likely to be profitable, though in a battle they did
not care much who they killed, so long as he was a
foreigner. A clever Florentine, named Machiavelli,
wrote a book called " The Prince," in which he
made out that craft and trickery was the right way
for small states to prosper and overthrow their
enemies ; and this spirit of falsehood was taken for
good polic}^, and is known by his name.
The manner of fighting was curious. Able cap-
tains used to get together bands of men-at-arms,
who had been trained to skill in warfare, but who
did not care on what side they fought, provided
they were paid well, allowed to plunder the towns
they took, and to make prisoners, whom they put
to ransom. Some of these bands were on horse-
back, some on foot,, and the most feared of all
among the foot soldiers were the Swiss, wlio were
very terrible with their long pikes, and would hire
themselves out to any one who paid them well ; but
^■l^~^
%W^^'
if 10
f^,{
^'TiJ
CHEVALIER BAYAKD GOING TO THE WAKS.
Louis XIL 273
if tliey did not get money enough, were apt to
mutiny and go over to tlie other side.
The wicked Pope, Alexander YI., was poisoned
by drinking by mistake the wine he had meant to
poison another person with ; and the new Pope,
Julius II., made a league with Louis and Maxi-
milian against the Venetians. It was called the
League of Cambrai, but no sooner had the brave
French army gained and given to Julius the towns
he had been promised, than he turned again to his
Italian hatred of the foreigner, and deserted their
cause. He made another league, which he called
the Holy League, with the Emperor Maximilian,
the Spanish Ferdinand, and Henry VIIL, for
driving the French out of Italy. This was the sort
of bad faith that Machiavelli had taught men to
think good policy.
The French army in Italy Avas attacked by the
Spaniards and Italians, and though the brave young
general, Gaston de Foix, Duke of Nemours, gained
a grand battle at Ravenna, he was killed at the close
of the day ; and the French having everybody
against them, were driven back out of the duchy
of Milan, and over the Alps, and entirely out of
Italy. Louis XIL could not send help to them, for
Ferdinand was attacking him in the south of France,
274 Young Folks' History of France.
and Henry VIII. in the nortli. The sister of the
Duke of Nemours was the second wife of Ferdi-
nand, and he said she ought to be Queen of Navarre ;
and as the real queen Avas wife to a French count,
Ferdinand seized the little kingdom, and left only
the possessions that belonged to the French side of
the family ; so that henceforth the King of Navarre
was only a French noble.
Henry YIII. brought a fine army with him, with
which he besieged and took the city of Tournay,
and fought a battle at Enguingate, in which the
French were taken by surprise ; a panic seized them,
they left their brave knights, Bayard among them,
to be made prisoners, and galloped of so fast that
there were only forty men killed, and the English
called it the Battle of the Spurs.
Terouenne was also taken, and Louis thought it
time to make peace. His wife, Anne of Brittany,
was just dead. She had had only two daughters,
Claude and Kenee ; and as Claude was heiress of
Brittany, it was thought well to marry her to
Francis, Duke of Angouleme, who was first cousin
to her father, and who would be King of France.
Francis was a fine, handsome, graceful young man.
but he had a very bad mother, Louise of Savoy.
Queen Ainie knew Claude would not be happy, and
Louis XIL 275
tried hard to prevent the match, but she could not
succeed, and she died soon after it was concluded.
Louis then offered himself to marry Henry's young-
est sister, Mary, and the most beautiful princess in
Europe, and she was obliged to consent. Louis was
not an old man, but he had been long obliged to
take great care of his health, and the feastings and
pageants with which he received his young bride
quite wore him out, so that he died at the end of
six weeks, on the New Year's Day of 1515.
He is sometimes called the fatiier of his people,
though he does not seem to have done much for
their good, only taxed them heavily for his wars in
Ital}^ ; but his manners were pleasant, and that went
for a great deal with the French. The Italian wars,
though very bad in themselves, improved the
French in taste by causing them to see the splendid
libraries and buildings, and the wonderful collection
of statues, gems, and vases of the old Greek times,
which the Italian princes were making, and those
most beautiful pictures that were being produced
by the greatest artists who have lived. This brought
in a love of all these forms of beauty, and from
that time forward the French gentlemen Avere much
more cultivated than they had been in the old
knightly days, though, unfortunately, thc}^ were
much less religious, for the sight of those wicked
Popes had done them all much harm.
CHAPTER XXYIL
FRANCIS I. — YOUTH.
1515—1526.
FRANCIS I., the new King of France, was
twenty years old, and very brilliant, hand-
some, gracions, brave, and clever, with his head full
of chivalrous notions, but no real sense of religion
to keep him up to the truth and honor that are the
most real part of chivalry.
276
FKANCIS I. AT MAKIGXAXO.
Francis L — Youth. 279
To conquer Italy was, as usual, his first notion,
and lie set out across the Alps ; but the Swiss had
turned against him, and blocked up his way at
Marignano. There was a terrible battle, beginning
late in the day, and when night came on everything
was in confusion. The king lay down on a cannon,
and asked for some water ; but the only water that
could be found was red with blood, and he turned
from it, sickened. All night the great cow-horns
which were the signal of the Swiss troops, were
heard blowing, to gather them together ; but the
French rallied sooner, and won a complete victory,
which was very much thought of as no one had
ever beaten the Swiss before. When it was over,
Francis knelt down before Bayard, and desired to
be dubbed a knight by him, as the bravest and
truest of knights. When this was done, Bayard
kissed his sword and declared that it should never
be put to any meaner use.
After this, Francis went on to take possession of
Milan ; and he had an interview with the Pope at
Bologna. It was a new Pope, called Leo X., a man
very fond of art and learning and everything beau-
tiful, though he cared little for duty or religion.
He made an agreement with Francis, which is called
the Concordat of Bologna. By this the king gave
280 Young Folks'* History of France.
the Pope certain payments every year for ever, and
gave up the calling synods of his clergy regularly ;
and the Pope, in return, gave the king the right
for himself and his successors of appointing all the
bisho})S, deans, abbots, and abbesses in France for
ever. Nothing ever did so much harm in France,
for the courtiers used to get bad men, little children,
and all sorts of unfit persons appointed for the sake
of their lands and wealth; and the clergy, being
hindered from taking counsel together, grew more
idle and dull. The people were taught nothing
good, and every sin that they were prone to grew
worse and worse.
Francis himself was a spoilt child, caring only
for pleasure, and what he called glory. He wanted
to be Emperor of Germany, and tried to get Henry
yill. to help him; and they had a great meeting
at Ardres (near Calais), when such splendors in
tents, ornaments, and apparel were displayed, that
the conference was known as the Field of the Cloth
of Gold. The two kings were both joj^ous j^oung
men, and they wrestled and played together like
two boys ; but nothing came of this displa}', for
Henr}^ really preferred the young King Charles of
Spain, who was grandson to the Emperor Maxi-
^,*«f\^i a^
i, -;:,• --CAMs^-,
DEATH OF BAVAKD.
Francis I. — Youth. 283
milian and Mary of Burgundy, and thus inherited
the Low Countries.
When Maximilian died, Francis offered himself
for the empire, and told the electors they were to
think of him and Charles not as enemies, but as
rivals for the same lady. This, however, was only
a fine speech, for Francis was much discontented
when Charles was chosen emperor, and began a
war again at once ; but all he got by this was, that
the Italians rose and drove his army out of Milan.
Another misfortune befel him. His mother, Louise
of Savo}^, who had always spoilt him, and whom
he gave way to more than any one else, was so
foolish as to fall in love with Charles, Duke of
Bourbon and Constable of France ; and when the
Constable laughed at her, she resolved to ruin him,
and made the king most unjustly decide against
him in a suit about his lands. The Constable was
so angry that he went to Spain, and offered to serve
Charles against his king and country. He was so
good a captain that Charles was glad ; but every
one felt that he was a disgraced man, and the old
Spanish noble in whose castle the emperor lodged
him would not so much as shake hands with him.
However, he was with the army that Charles sent
into Italy to meet that with which Francis tried to
284 Young Folks' History of France.
regain Milan. In a little battle near Ivrea, the
good knight, Bayard, was shot through the back.
The French were retreating before the enem}^, and
were forced to leave him lying under a tree ; but
the Spaniards treated him with the deepest respect,
and when the Constable de Bourbon came to him,
it was with much grief and sorrow. " Sir," said
the dying Bayard, " you need not pity me for dying
in my duty, like a brave man ; but I pity you
for serving against your king, your country and
your oath." And Bayard set up liis cross-handled
sword before him, and died as a true and good
knight.
But Bourbon did not take warning. He actually
led a Spanish army to invade his own country, and
ravaged Provence ; but all the French rallied under
Francis, and he was driven back. Then Francis
himself crossed the Alps, hoping to recover what he
had lost in Italy, and for a time he had the advan-
tage ; but Charles's best general, the Marquis of
Pescara, marched against him while he was be-
sieging Pavia. , There was a terrible battle, fought
on the 24th of Februar}- , 1525. Francis was too
hasty in supposing the victory was his, charged
with all his horse, got entangled in the firm Spanish
squadrons, and was surrounded, wounded, and
CAPTUKE OF FKAXCIS L
Francis I. — Youth. 287
obliged to yield himself as a prisoner. Most of his
best knights were killed round him, and in a fort-
night after the battle there Avas not a Frenchman
in Lombard}^ who was not a prisoner.
The Marquis of Pescara treated Francis respect-
full}^ and he was sent as a prisoner to Madrid,
where he was closely guarded ; and Charles, who
had given out as his object to break the jpride of
France, would only release him upon very hard
terms — namely, that he should yield up all his pre-
tentions to any part of Italy, renounce the sov-
ereignty of tlie Low Countries, make Henry d'Al-
bret give up his claim to Navarre, and marry
Charles's sister Eleanor, giving his two sons as hos-
tages till this was carried out. Francis was in
despair, and grew so ill that his sister Margaret
came from Paris to nurse him, when he declared
that he would rather abdicate his throne than thus
cripple his kingdom. If he had held to that reso-
lution, he would have been honored forever ; but
he had no real trutli in him, and after about ten
months' captivity, he brought himself to eugage
to do all that was demanded of him ; but at the
same time, he made a protest, before a few of
his French friends, that be only signed a treaty
with Charles because he was a prisoner and in his .
288 Young Folks' History of France.
power, and that he would not think himself bound
to keep it when he was free. If any Spaniard had
heard him, this would have been fair ; but as no
one knew of it but the French, it was a shameful
deceit. However, he signed and swore to whatever
Charles chose, and then was escorted back to the
borders, where, on the river Bidassoa, he met his
two young sons, who were to be exchanged for him ;
and after embracing them and giving them up to
the Spaniards, he landed, mounted his horse, made
it bound into the air, and, waving his sword above
his head, cried out, " I am yet a king ! " He had
better have been an honest man ; but though his
first thought was how to break the treaty, he was
at first so glad to get home that he spent his time
in pleasures. He had one or two good and noble
tastes. He was so fond of those great artists who
were then living, that some of their very grandest
pictures were painted for him, such as Raffaelle's
beautiful picture of the Archangel St Michael;
and Leonardo de Vinci, one of the greatest of
painters, found a home with him, and died at last
in his arms.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
FRAITCIS I. — MIDDLE AGE.
1526—1547.
THE other nations of Europe thought that the
emperor was too hard upon Francis, and they
were the more inclined to join against Jiim Avhen
the Imperial army, without any orders to that effect,
marched to Rome, under the Constable de Bourbon,
and actually took the city. Bourbon himself was
shot dead in the assault, and there was no one to
stop the troops in the horrible savage cruelties and
profanations they committed. The Pope gave him-
self up as prisoner, and Charles could make what
terms he pleased. Francis found he could not
stand up against him, so the mother of the French
king (Louise of Savoy) and the aunt of the Em-
peror (Margaret of Austria) met at Cambrai, and
made what is called the Ladies' Peace, which gave
289
290 Young Folks' History of France,
France somewhat better terms than the treaty of
Madrid had done.
Things were very bad in France just then, and
good earnest men longed to set them right. John
Calvin, a man of much learning, who had been in-
tended for a priest, had, during his course of stud}^
come to think that much of the teaching of the
Church of Rome was mistaken, and he put forth
books Avhich were eagerly read by great numbers,
especially by the king's sister Margaret, who had
married the dispossessed King of Navarre ; and by
his sister-in-law, Ren^e, the Duchess of Ferrara.
The king himself liked very well to laugh atthe
greedy and vicious ways of the clergy he had got
about him, and he was too clever a man not to see
that they let the people be taught a great deal that
was foolish and could not be true ; but Calvin and
his friends condemned strongly all his own easy,
pleasure-loving ways of life. A real good priest of
the Church would have done the same ; but Francis
did not bring good ones about him, and the Cal-
vinist teaching made him angry. Besides, Calvin
condemned things that were right as well as things
that were wrong, and his followers shocked many
devout and reverent spirits by treating all things
that they had always thought sacred, as idols. Some
BKEAKING OF THK STATUE OF THE VIKGIN MAKY.
Francis I. — Middle Age, 293
one broke a statue of the Virgin Mary in the streets
of Paris, and this led to a cry on the part of the
people that such things should not be allowed to go
on. The persons who were pointed out as Calvin-
ists were seized ; and when they showed how little
they agreed with the doctrines of the Roman Cath-
olic Church, they were delivered over by the clergy
to the State, and burnt alive, according to the cruel
laws for dealing with heretics.
it
But their brethren were only the firmer in their
doctrine, and hated the Romish Church the more
for thus trying to put down the truths that contra-
dicted some of her teachings. The Calvinists were
called in France Huguenots, though no oue quite
knows why. The most likely explanation is, that
it is from two Swiss words, meaning " oath-com-
rades," because they were all sworn brothers. Cal-
vin himself, when he could not safely sta}^ in France,
accepted an invitation from the Reformers of Geneva
to come and guide them, and thence he sent out
rules which guided the French Huguenots.
Margaret, the Queen of Navarre, thought with
the Huguenots, that much was wrong in her
Church, but she would rather have set the Church
right ; and her brother, the king, never allowed
measures to be taken for driving her to break with
294 Young Folks'^ History of Franhe.
the Churcli. Her only child, Jane, was, however,
brought up an ardent Huguenot. She was a de-
termined, high-spirited little girl ; and when in her
twelfth year, her uncle. King Francis, wanted to
marry her to the dull, heavy Duke of Cleves, and
send her off to Flanders, she cried and entreated
till the good-natured king could hardly bear it.
When the poor little bride was dressed, against her
will, she either could not stand under the weight of
her jewels or she would not try, and her uncle bade
the stout Constable de Montmorency take her in
liis arms and carry her to the church ; and so the
wedding was gone through ; but before the feasts
were over, or she could be carried to Cleves, Fran-
cis heard news of the duke's having made friends
with the emperor, and was very glad to be able to
say that, as the bride had never consented, the
marriage was null and void. Jane afterwards mar-
ried Antony, Duke of Bourbon, who was always
called King of Navarre in her right, though the
Spaniards had all the real kingdom of Navarre, and
she only had the little French counties of Beam
and Foix, but here she fostered the Huguenots with
all her might.
Charles V. and Francis kept up a war for most
of their lives, but without any more great battles
Francis I. — Middle Age, 295
Francis would do any thing however disgraceful,
to damage Charles ; and though he was persecuting
the Calvinists at home, he helped and made friends
with the Protestants in Germany, because they
were the Emperor's great trouble ; and again, be-
cause Charles was at war with the Turks and the
Moors, Francis allied himself with them. How-
ever, as he deserved, his treachery profited him
little, for the emperor gained a fast hold on Italy,
and, moreover, invaded Prpyence"; but the Count
de Montmorency laid waste every town, village,
and farm in his way, so that his army found nothing
to eat, and he was forced to retreat, though, in
truth, the poor Provencals suffered just as much
from their own side as they could have done from
the enemy. However, Montmorency was -made
Constable of France as a reward. .. '. • '
After this, peace was made for a time, and
Charles, who wanted to go in haste from Spain to
Flanders, asked leave to pass through France ; and
Francis admired himself immensely for receiving
him most courteously, sending the Dauphin to meet
him, and entertaining him magnificently. But at
one of the banquets, we are told that Francis
pointed to the Duchess of Chatelherault, saying,
" Here's a lady who says I am a great fool to let
296 Young Folks' History of France.
you go free." The emperor took the hint, and
dropped a costly ring into the gold basin that the
duchess held to him to wash his hands in. An-
other day, as the king and the emperor were set-
ting out on a pleasure excursion, the Duke of
Orleans, Francis's second son, a wild young fellow,
always in mischief, sprang up behind the emperor,
and clasping both arms round his waist, cried out,
" Your Imperial Majesty is my prisoner ! " It is said
that Charles was for the moment much disconcerted.
However, he departed in safety, but no sooner
did Francis hear of his being in trouble in his own
domains, than all promises were again broken,
and the war began again. This time Henry VIII.
was very angry with his bad faith, and joined the
emperor to punish it. Charles invaded Champagne,
and Henry landed at Calais, and besieged and took
Boulogne. However, the emperor first made peace,
and then Henry, who promised, in eight years'
time, to give back Boulogne for a ransom of two
million crowns. Just after this peace was made
Henry died, and Francis only lived two months
after him, dying in January, 1547, when only fifty-
three years old. Poor queen Claude had long been
dead, and he had married the emperor's sister
Eleanor, to whom he did not behave better than to
DUKK OF ORLEANS AND CHARLES V.
Francis I. — Middle Age. 299
Claude. She had had no children, and most of
Claude's were weak and delicate, so that only two
survived their father — Henry, who had been the
second son, but had become Dauphin; and Mar-
garet, the youngest daughter.
CHAPTER XXIX.
HENRY II.
1547—1559.
HENRY II., the son of Francis I., had better
qualities than his vain and faithless father,
and if he had lived in better times, and had good
men about him, he might have been an excellent
person. He was not one of those men who can
change the whole face of a country for good, but
was borne along with the stream : his grandmother
and father had made the whole court ^^ icked and
corrupt, while, now that the Church of France had
lost its freedom, the clergy were so much in bondage
that nobody dared to speak plain truths to the
king, and he went on in sin unrebuked.
The Calvinists (or Huguenots), who read the
Bible and tried to keep the Commandments, looked
at the wicked court with horror, and declared that
300
Henry 11. 301
the way the clergy let it go on was a sign that
their Church could not be true ; and, on the other
hand, the young nobles mixed up Calvinism and
strictness of life in their fancies, and laughed at
both ; and so the two parties made one another
worse.
The king was a kind-hearted man, and very con-
stant in his affections. His greatest friend was the
Constable de Montmorency, to whom he held fast
all his life ; and his other strongest feeling was for
a beautiful lady called Diana of Poitiers. She was
a widow, and he wore her colors (black and silver)
and twisted her initial (D.) up with his own (H.)
in his device, without ever being made to see how
wrong it was to forsake his wife Catherine v^^ho
had been chosen for him when his father wanted to
make friends in Ital}^ She was the daughter of
the great Florentine family of Medici, and was very
wary and cunning, living so quietly that no one
guessed how much ability she had. She had a
large family, and the eldest son, Francis, was be-
trothed to the infant Mary, Queen of Scots, who
was sent from her own kingdom to be brought up
with her young husband in the court of France.
Henry went on with the war with the emperor,
and would not let the French bishops go to Trent,
302 Young Folks'^ History of France.
where Charles was trying to get together a council
of the Church, to set to right the evils that had led
to the separations. Henry had one ver}^ able gen-
eral, Francis de Lorraine, Duke of Guise (a son of
that Rene, Duke of Lorraine, of whom you may
remember hearing as grandson to old King Kene).
He sent this general to seize the city of Metz,
which he declared he had a right to ; and there
Guise shut himself up and stood a siege by the
emperor himself, until hunger and famine made
such havoc in the besieging army that they were
forced to retreat.
The emperor was growing old, and suffered much
from the gout, and he longed for rest and time to
prepare himself for death. So he decided on re-
siginng his crowns, and going and spending the
remainder of his life in a Spanish monastery. He
gave the empire to his brother Ferdinand, and the
kingdoms of Spain and the two Sicilies, with Lom-
bardy and the Low Countries, to his son, Philip IL,
who was married to the English queen, Mary Tudor.
This made the English join in the war against Henry
II. , and a small brave body was sent to the Spanish
army, which, with Philip himself, was besieging
St. Quentin, a town on the borders of Picardy.
One of the bravest men in France (a Huguenot
GUISE AT METZ.
Henry II. 305
nobleman), Gaspar de Chatillon, Admiral de
Ooligny, was defending the town, and his brother,
the Sieur d'Andelot, tried hard to break through
and bring him provisions, but he was beaten back ;
and there was a great battle fought on the 10th of
August, 1557, before the walls, when the Constable
de Montmorency, who commanded the French, was
entirely beaten. He was himself made prisoner,
four thousand men were killed, and Coligny was
forced to surrender. France had not suffered such
a defeat since the battle of Agincourt ; and Philip
was so thankful for this victory of St. Quentin,
that, as it happened upon St. Lawrence's Day, he
built, in Spain, a palace and a convent all in one,
the ground plan of which was shaped like the grid-
iron, or bars of iron, on which St. Lawrence suf-
fered martj'rdom. However, it was some comfort
to the French that the Duke of Guise managed to
take by surprise the city of Calais, which the
English had held ever sijice the time of Edward
HI., and which was their last French possession.
But other mischances forced Henry to make peace ;
and at Cateau Cambresis, in 1559, a treaty was
signed which put an end to the long Italian wars
that had been begun by Charles VIII. nearly sev-
enty years before. After this, there were great
306 Young Folks' History of France.
rejoicings; but tlie persecution of the Calvinists
was carried on with more rigor, and the king and
all his court, even the ladies, used to be present at
the burning in the market-place. One poor tailor,
on his way to the stake, turned round and gave the
king a last look, which, it is said, Henry never for-
got all the days of his life.
These da3'^s were not, however, very long after-
wards. One of the unjust acts Francis had done
was the seizing the little dukedom of Savoy iu the
Alps, and adding it to his kingdom. The landless
Duke of Savoy had gone and served in the Spanish
army, and was an able general — indeed, it was he
who had really gained the battle of St. Queiijiin ;
and one article in the peace of Cateau Cambresis
had been that the French should give him back his
dukedom and marry him to Margaret, the only
sister of' Henry. The wedding festivities were in-
tended to be ver}^ magnificent, and Henry began
them with a splendid tournament, like those of the
old times of knighthood, when the knights, in full
armor, rode against each other with their heavy
lances. Henry himself took part in this one, and
tried to unhorse the Sieur des Lorges, eldest son of
the Count de Montgomery. There was generally
very little danger to men in steel armor, but as
Henry 11. 309
these two met, the pomt of Des Lorges' lance
pierced a jom in the visor of Henry's helmet, and
penetrated his eye and his brain. He was carried
from the lists, and lay speechless for two daj^s ; and,
in the meantime, his sister was hastily married in
private to the Duke of Savoy, that his death might
not delay the fulfilment of the treaty. He died on
the 29th of June, 1559, leaving four sons, (Francis,
Charles, Henry, and Hercules) and three daughters
(Elizabeth, Claude, and Margaret), all verj^ youno-.
Some fortune-teller told their mother, Catherine de
Medicis, that her sons would be all kings ; and this
made her very uneasy, as she thought it must mean
that they would all die, one after the other, without
heirs, like the three sons of the wicked Philip the
Fair. However, though the fortune-teller was
nearly right, he was not entirely so.
CHAPTER XXX.
FRANCIS II., 1559—1560.
CHARLES IX., 1560—1572.
THE next two reigns, though they are, of
course, called the reigns of Francis 11. and
Charles IX., were really the reign of their mother,
Catherine de Medicis. Francis was only fifteen
when he lost his father, and was weakly and deli-
cate ; and though his mother took the chief man-
agement of affairs, she knew that he did not care
for her half so much as for his young wife Mary,
Queen of Scots, wdio despised her for not being a
born queen, like herself, but only of a race of Italian
merchants.
Mary's mother had been a sister of the Duke of
Guise, and Catherine knew she would help her
uncle forward. Besides, the duke was the hand-
somest and bravest gentleman in France, and had
310
^ ■/■;-. I'll |t<
Eft Li- -" SlW>££i1
.^'■-■i*-:^^'.
.^M'
L-16-;
FKANCIS II. AND MARY STUAKT.
Francis IL 31
Q
such gracious manners that all loved him. He was
quite the head of the zealous Roman Catholics, and
Catherine wanted to keep him down. So, as she
did not much care for any religion, she made friends
with the chiefs of the Huguenots. Queen Jane of
Navarre was the real chief, for she had made her
little count}^ of Beam quite Calvinist ; but her
husband, Antony, Duke of Bourbon, loved amuse-
ment more than any thing else, and never cared
enough to make up his mind. However, his brother
Louis, Prince of Conde, saw that they would be
thought more of by the Huguenots than by the
other party ; and though not a very religious man,
he was sincere in thinking the Roman errors wrong.
So these two drew Antony their way. Besides, the
Admiral de Coligny, who had defended St. Quentin,
was a thoroughly good, pious, sincere man, and was
much looked up to as the noblest of Huguenots.
Conde hated nothing so much as the Duke of
Guise, and he had a plan for seizing him and the
young king, but it was found out in time ; and
Guise, on his side, laid a plan for inviting the prince
and his brother (who was always called the king of
Navarre) into the king's chamber. Francis was to
call out, '' Here, guards ! " and the guards were to
dash in and seize or kill the two brothers. But
314 Young Folks' History of France,
Francis could not make up his mind to do such a
cruel, treacherous thing ; so he would not give the
word, and let the princes go safely. Guise was
ver}^ angry, and said he was a coward ; but it was
happy for the poor boy that he was kept from this
evil deed, for it was the last act of his life. He
died of a swelling in his ear, in his seventeenth
year, in 1560. His wife. Queen Mary, went back
to Scotland ; and his brother, Charles IX., who was
only twelve years old, began to reign.
The Duke of Guise lost power at court when his
niece went away, and Catherine listened more to
Cond^. Indeed, she consented that the Chief Cal-
vinist ministers should have a conference at Passy
with the bishops, to try if the}^ could not be recon-
ciled to the Church ; but though they began peace-
ably, the argument soon ended in a quarrel. How-
ever, the Huguenots were allowed to hold meetings
for worship, provided it was not in a walled town,
or where they could disturb Catholics ; and in their
joy at gaining so much, they ventured to do much
more ; and wherever they were the stronger, they
knocked down the crosses and the images of the
saints, and did all they could to show their dislike
of the Catholic worship.
At Yassy, where the mother of the Duke of
Charles IX. 317
Guise lived, there was a barn where the Huguenots
used to meet. When her son was visiting her, she
complained of them ; and when he went to church
on Sunday, he heard them singing. His followers
were very angry at what they thought imperti-
nence, broke into the barn, made a riot and hilled
several. This was the beginning of the great war
between the Catholics and Huguenots — a sad and
terrible one. It was interrupted by many short
times of peace, but you would only be puzzled -if I
tried to tell you of all the wars and all the treaties.
The chief thing you have to remember is, that a
Guise was always at the head of the Catholics, and
a Bourbon at the head of the Huguenots ; and that
though the queen Avas a Catholic, -she sometimes
favored the Huguenots, for fear of the Guises ; but
she was so false that nobody could believe a word
she said. The most honest man at court was old
Constable de Montmorency, but he was terribly
stern and cruel, and every one feared him. The
cit}^ of Kouen fell into the hands of the Huguenots,
and Guise besieged it ; but in the course of the
siege he was shot by a murderer named Poltrot, and
died in a few hours. His son Henrj', wlio was
very young at the time, always believed that the
murderer had been sent by the Admiral de Coligny ;
318 Young Folk's History of France.
and though this was not at all likely, the whole
family vowed vengeance against him. During this
siege, Antony, Duke of Bourbon (called King of
Navarre) was also killed. He was no great loss to
the Huguenots, for he had gone over to the other
side, and his wife, Queen Jane, was freer to act
without him.
Old Montmorency was killed, not long after, in a
battle with the Prince of Conde, near St. Denis ;
and the queen thought the Huguenots so prosper-
ous that she said, in a light way, to one of her
ladies, " Well, we shall have to say our prayers in
French." Her sons were beginning to grow up.
She did not like to put the king forward, lest he
should learn to govern, and take away her power ;
but her third son, Henry, the Duke of Anjou, was
very handsome and clever, and quite her favorite,
for he was as false and cruel as herself. In the
battle of Jarnac he commanded. The Prince of
Cond^, who was on the other side, had his arm in
a sling, from a hurt received a few days before ;
and just as he had ridden to the head of his troops,
a horse kicked and broke his leg ; but he would
not give up, and rode into battle as he was. He
was defeated, and taken prisoner. He was lifted
off his horse ; and while he sat under a tree, for he
Charles IX, 319
could not stand, a friend of the Duke of Anjo'u
shot hiiji througli the head.
The Queen of Navarre felt that she must come
to the head of her party. She had one son, Henr}^,
Prince of Beam. As soon as he was born, his
grandfather had rubbed his lips with a clove of
garlic, and bidden him be a brave man ; and the
cradle he was rocked in, a great tortoise's shell, is
still kept at Pan, in Beam. He had run about on
the hills with the shepherd lads to make him strong
and hardy ; and Queen Jane had him most carefully
taught both religion and learning, so that he was a
boy of great promise. He was fifteen years old at
this time ; and his cousin Henry, son of the Prince
of Conde, was about the same age. Queen Jane
took them to the head of the Huguenot army, and
all were delighted to serve under them, while Ad-
miral de Coligny managed their affairs.
Under him and Queen Jane they prospered more
than before, and Queen Catherine began to see that
she should never put them down by force. She
pretended to make friends with them, and she and
her son, Charles IX., made them grants that af-
fronted all the zealous Roman Catholics very much ;
but it was all for the sake of getting them in her
320 Young Folks' History of France,
power. She offered to marry lier daughter Mar-
garet to the Prince of Beam, and invited him to
her court. Poor Queen Jane could not bear to let
her boy go, for she knew what would happen.
Catherine kept a whole troop of j^oung ladies about
her, who were called the Queen Mother's Squadron,
and who made it their business, with their light
songs, idle talk, and pleasant evil habits, to corrupt
all the young men who came about them. Now
Jane's little court was grave, strict and dull, and
Henry enjoyed the change. Catherine read Italian
poetry with him, put amusements in his way, and
found it only too easy to laugh him out of his strict
notions of his home. Poor Jane tried to keep up
his love ; slie wrote to him about his dogs and
horses, and all he used to care for ; but cunning
Catherine took care never to have mother and son
at her court together. She sent Henry home be-
fore she invited his mother to the court. When
Jane came, Catherine said to one of her friends,
"I cannot understand this queen ; she will alwa3'S
be reserved with me." " Put her in a passion,"
was the answer ; " then she will tell you all her
secrets." But Jane would never be put in a pas-
sion, and Catherine could get no power over her.
Charles IX. 321
While still at court Jane fell suddenly ill and
died. Every one thought Catherine had poisoned
her. There was a man about court, a perfumer,
whom people called in whispers, " The Queen's
Poisoner."
CHAPTER XXXI.
CHARLES IX.
1572—1574.
POOR young Charles IX. would have been a
good man if his mother would have allowed
him ; but she taught him that the way to reign was
to deceive, and he was so much afraid of her that
he choked all his better feelings. She was exceed-
ingly afraid of the Huguenots, and thought they
were conspiring against her ; and the young Henrj^
Duke of Guise, was ready to do anything to be re-
venged on Coligny, whom he viewed as his father's
murderer. So, to get the Huguenots into her
power, Catherine invited all their chief nobles to
come to the wedding of her daughter Margaret with
young Henry, who had become King of Navarre.
The Pope would not give leave for the princess to
marry one who stood outside the Church, but the
322
I
Charles IX. 323
queen forged his consent ; and the poor bride, who
was in love with the Duke of Guise, was so unwill-
ing, that, at the wedding itself, when she was asked
if she would have this man for her husband, she
would not say yes ; but her brother Charles pushed
her head down into a nod, to stand for yes.
Coligny and his friends had come to the wedding ;
and the king was so delighted with the brave, honest
old soldier, that Catherine thought she should lose
all her power over him. One day, Coligny was
shot in the streets of Paris by a murderer ; and
though only his hands were shattered, he was so ill
that the king came to see him, and all his friends
mustered round him to protect him. Thereupon,
Catherine settled with her son, the Duke of Anjou,
and the Duke of Guise, that, when the bell of the
Church of St. Germain I'Auxerrois, close to the
palace of the Tuileries, should begin to ring at
midnight before St. Bartholomew's Day, the people
of Paris, who were all devoted to the Duke of
Guise, should rise upon the Huguenots who were
lodging in their houses, and kill them all at once.
It was hard to get King Charles to consent, for
there were many Huguenots whom he had learnt to
love ; but when he found he could not save Coligny,
he said, " Let them all die ; let none live to reproach
324 Young Folks' History of France.
me." However, he called into his own bedroom
those whom he most wished to save — namely, his
good doctor and his old nurse ; but there were a
great many more in the palace, attending upon the
young King of Navarre, and every one of these
was slaughtered, except one man, who dashed into
Queen Margaret's room and clung to her. Every-
where murder was going on. The followers of
Guise wore white scarves on one arm, that they
might know one another in the dark ; and a troop
of them rushed in, slew good old Colign}^ in his
bedroom, and threw his corpse out of the window.
His chaplain escaped over the roof and hid in a
hayloft, where a hen came every day and laid an
Qgg^ which was all he had to live on. All the rabble
of Paris were slaying and plundering their neigh-
bors, and all the other towns where the Huguenots
were weakest the same horrid work was going on.
The Massacre of St. Bartholomew is the deadliest
crime in the history of France. The young king
was half mad that night. He is said to have shot
from the palace window at some whom he saw run-
ning away ; and though this may not be true, it is
quite certain that he drew his sword against the
King of Navarre and Prince of Conde, and would
have struck them, if his young wife, Elizabeth of
5^^. ;<.%C; •.. i V \
Charles IX. 327
Austria, had not heard of it, and ran in, as she was,
with her hair hanging down, entreating him to
spare them ; and their lives were given them on
condition that they would return to the Church,
which they did ; but they were watched and forced
to live like a sort of prisoners at court.
When the English Queen Elizabeth heard of this
shocking da}', she dressed herself and all her court
in mourning, and would not speak to the French
ambassador. She broke oif the plans for marrying
her to the Duke of Anjou — a scheme on which
Catherine de Medicis was much set, as it would
have made her third son a king without the death
of the second. However, a kingdom did come to
him, for the old realm of Poland always chose the
king by election by all the nobles, and their choice
fell upon Henry, Duke of Anjou. He did not like
going to that wild country, away from all the
amusements of Paris, and delayed as long as he
could, but he was forced to set off at last.
Meantime, the poor young king was broken-
hearted. He tried to foro^et the horrors of the nig^ht
of St. Bartholomew, and the good men he had
learnt to love and respect, while he was only draw-
ing them into a trap. He went out hunting, rode
violently for long distances, and blew furious blasts
328 Young Folks History of France,
on his hunting horn ; but nothing could drive away
that horrible remembrance, and all that he did was
to hurt his own health. His lungs were injured ;
and whenever a bleeding came on, it seemed to him
that he was in the midst of the blood of the Hu-
guenots. All the comfort he h;id was in his old
nurse and surgeon, whom he had saved; for his
mother was too busy trying to secure the throne
for his brother to attend to liim, and kept him
closely watched lest his grief for the massacre
should be known. So he died in the year 1574,
when only twenty-three years old, and his last words
were, " If our Lord Jesus will have mercy on me I "
And so we may hope that his repentance was true.
The war with the Huguenots was still going on
when he died, for though Coligny was slain, and
the King of Navarre still closely watched and
guarded at court, there were enough nobles left
alive, especially in the South of France, to hold out
against their enemies. Everybody was growing
dreadfully cruel on both sides. It was the fashion
to boast of killing as many as possible. If the
troops of the queen and Duke of Guise came on a
preaching of the Huguenots, they burnt the build-
iug, and slew every one who came out of it; and if
the Huguenots found a church or convent not de-
Charles IX. 829
fended, they did not use the monks or nuns much
better. The Count de Montgomery, whose lance
had caused the death of Henry II., was on the
Huguenot side, and had some ships, with which he
sailed about, capturing all the vessels that came in
his way, and plundering them. It was a miserable
time, and every one watched anxiously for the new
king ; but though he was delighted to leave Poland,
and galloped away in the night from Cracow, as if
he were a thief, for fear the Poles should stop him,
he was in no hurry to take all the troubles of his
French kingdom upon him, but went out of his way
to Italy, and stayed there amusing himself, while
all the time the Duke of Guise was growing more
and more strong, and a greater favorite with the
people of Paris, who would do anything for him.
Catherine, too, was trying to marry her fourth son,
the Duke of Alengon, to Queen Elizabeth, who
pretended to think about it, and even sent for him
to see her ; but it was all in order to keep peace
with France — she never really meant it — and the
duke was an ugly little spiteful youth, whom every-
body at court hated and feared.
CHAPTER XXXTL
HENRY in.
1574.
THE new king, Henrj HI., was a strange per-
son. He seemed to have used up all his spirit
and sense at the battle of Jarnac, Avliich made the
people think him a hero ; and though he was not a
coward in battle, he had no boldness in thinking of
danger — no moral courage in making up his mind.
On his way home through Savoy, he saw Louise de
Yaudemont, a beautiful girl, a cousin of the Duke
of Guise, and determined to marry her. Queen
Catherine tried to prevent it, because Mary of
Scotland had been so haughty with her, and poor
Louise herself was betrothed to a man she loved ;
but the king would not be withstood, and she led a
dreary life with him. He cared for little but fine
clothes, his own beauty, and a sort of religion that
330
/ '' // ,, '
'///', '"; ,1 ''
Henry IIL 333
did him no good. He slept in a mask and gloves
for the sake of his complexion, and painted his
face ; and every day he stood over his wife to see
her hair dressed, and chose her ornaments. He
had a set of friends like himself, who were called
his mignons^ or darlings, and were fops like him ;
but they all wore rosaries, of which the beads were
carved like skulls ; and they, king and all, used to
go in procession, barefoot and covered with sack-
cloth, to the churches in Paris, with whips in their
hands, with which to flog one another in penance
for their sins. Yet they were horribly cruel, and
thought nothing of murder. If one of them was
killed, the king would go and weep over him, take
out the earrings he himself had given him, and then
become just as fond of another mignon. Henry
was very fond of little dogs ; he used to carry a
basket of them slung round his neck, and fill his
carriage with them, when he went out with the
queen, generally to church, where he used to stick
illuminations, cut out of old books of devotion,
upon the wall.
Henry of Navarre stayed in this disgraceful court
for nearly tw^o years longer ; but at last, in 1576,
he grew ashamed of the life he was leading, fled
away to the Huguenot army, in the South of
334 Young Folks' History of France.
France, and professed himself a Calvinist again.
He soon showed that he was by far the ablest leader
that the Huguenots had had, and he obtained an-
other peace, and also that his wife Margaret should
be sent to him to his little court at Nerac ; but she
had been entirely spoilt by her mother's wicked
court, and had very little sense of right and wrong.
The pair never loved one another ; and as they had
no children,- there was nothing to draw them to-
gether, though they were friendly and civil to one
another, and Margaret tried to help her husband by
the lively court she kept, and the letters she wrote
to her friends at Paris.
Even the Duke of Alen^on, the youngest brother,
could not bear the life at Henry's court, and fled
from it. At one time the Dutch, who had revolted
from Philip of Spain, invited him to put himself at
their head ; but he did them no good, and on his
way home he died. He had never been worth any-
thing, but his death made a great difference, for
Henry III. had no children ; and as women could
neither reign in France themselves nor leave any
rights to their children, the nearest heir to the
crown was Henry of Navarre, whose forefather,
the first Count of Bourbon, had been a son of St.
Louis.
k
MURDER OF GUISE.
Henry III. 337
Everybody knew he was the right heir ; but to
have a Calvmist king to reign over them seemed so
frightful to all the more zealous Catholics, that they
formed themselves into a society, which they called
a League for maintaining the Church, and the
great object of which was to keep Henry of Navarre
from being King of France. The Duke of Guise
was at the head of this League, which was so pow-
erful, especially at Paris, that he could do almost
everything, and threatened and cowed the king till
Henry was almost a prisoner in his hands. There
was a third party — Catholics, but loyal, and with
the Count de Montmorency at their head — and
these were the persons to whom Henry trusted
most. He was fond of his bright, kindly brother-
in-law, the King of Navarre, and never would do
anything to prevent him from succeeding, although
he found that it was not safe to remain in Paris,
and went to his palace at Blois. Here he framed a
plot for freeing himself from the Duke of Guise.
He placed guards on whom he could depend under
the staircase and in his ante-room ; and when Guise
came to visit the king in early morning, they fell
upon him, thrcAV him down, and murdered him.
When Henry knew that the duke was dead, he
came out of his room to look at his late enemy.
338 Young Folks' History of France.
" How tall he is ! " was all that the king said. His
brother, the Cardinal of Guise, was killed the same
day ; and Henry went up to his mother, Queen
Catherine, who was ill in bed, to tell her that he
was free from his enemy ; but she saw plainly that
he was bringing more trouble on himself. "You
have cut," she said ; " can you sew up again ? Have
you thought of all that you will bring on yourself? "
He said he had done so. " Then you must be prompt
and firm," she said ; but she did not live to help
him through his difficulties. She died a fortnight
later, having done the most cruel harm to her chil-
dren, her country, and her Church.
Henry was far from able to sew up again. All
the League was mad with rage. Guise's sons were
little children ; but his brother, the Duke of May-
enne, took the lead, and though he was not a clever
man, the party was so strong that it took no great
ability to make it terrible to the king. The duke's
sister, the Duchess of Montpensier, really was like
a fury, and went about the streets of Paris stirring
up the people who already hated and despised the
king, and who now raged against him. They tried
him in effigy, deposed him, carried his figure through
the streets heaping insults upon it, and made an
anagram of his name, Henri de Valois into Vilain
Henry III, 339
Serodes. All the world seemed to have turned
against him, and he was brought to such distress
that he was obliged to beg Henry of Navarre to
come and help him. The two kings met at Plessis-
les-Tours, and Avere most friendly together. They
joined their armies and began to besiege Paris ; but
of course this made the Leaguers more violent
against Henry than ever, and a young monk named
Clement, fancying that there was no sin, but even
virtue, in freeing the Church from a man like
Henry, crept out of Paris with a packet of letters,
and while the king was reading one, stabbed him
in the body with a dagger. Clement was at once
slain by the gentlemen of the guard, and the King
of Navarre was sent for in time to see his brother-
in-law still alive. Henry embrfced him, bade his
people own him king of France, and added, " But
you will never be able to reign unless you become
a Catholic." Then he died, in the year 1589, the
last and most contemptible of the miserable house
of Valois. The Leaguers rejoiced in his death, and
praised the murderer Clement as a saint and mar-
tyr, while they set up as king the Cardinal of
Bourbon, the old uncle of the King of Navarre, de-
claring that it was impossible that a heretic should
ever reisrn in France.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
HENRY IV.
1589—1610.
THE new king, Henry IV., was so poor, that he
was obliged to dress himself in the velvet coat
left by his brother-in-law to receive the gentlemen
who came to make submission to him. France was
now divided into two parties instead of three, for
the Leaguers were of course set against the Hu-
guenots, while the moderate Catholics, who thought
that the birthright of the crown called them to be
loyal to any sort of king, all came over to Henry.
And he was so bright, gracious and good-natured,
that no one could help being fond of him, who had
once heard his frank voice and seen his merry
smile.
His old uncle, Cardinal Charles, the Leaguers'
king, ^oon died, and then tliey talked of Isabel, a
340
HENRY IV. AT IVRY.
Henrij IV, 343
daughter of Philip II. of Spain, because her mother
had been eldest sister of the last three kings ; but
as there Avas a great hatred of the Spaniards among
the French, this plan rather did harm to their cause,
and made many more of the Catholics turn to
Henry. He was fighting his way to the throne,
through more battles and sieges, ups and downs,
than it is possible to tell of here, though the ad-
Yentures he met with are delightful to read of. At
the battle of Ivry, in Normandy, he told his follow-
ers that if they wanted a guide in the thick of the
fray they had only to follow his white feather ; and
the saying became a by-word after his great victory.
The Spaniards came to help the League, and the
war lasted year after year, while Henry still Avas
kept out of Paris. At last he made up his mind
that he would return to the Roman Catholic Church.-
He used to say in after times that one of the true
things that nobody would believe, was, that he had
changed out of an honest belief that the Calvinists
were wrong ; and certainly he did gain a kingdom
by so doing ; but the truth was that he had very
little ricrht reliscion at all, and that he did not like
the strict ways of the Calvinists. If the Catholic
clergy had been in a better state, they would not
have received him unless he had left off all the sin-
344 Young Folks'* History of France.
ful habits he loved ; but they were only too glad to
gain him over and accept him heartily. But still
the League was not satisfied, and only in the year
1594, when he had been king five years, did he ride
into Paris, with his hair and moustache gray from
his cares and toils ; and even then the Leaguers
went on opposing him. till at last his wisdom, and
that of his good old friend, the Duke of Sully, suc-
ceeded in overcoming the remains of their dislike,
and the Duke de Mayenne consented to make peace
with him.
Then only did Henry begin to reign. He had
to put down some of the great nobles who had
grown over-powerful and insolent during the long
civil war; but he was one of the most kind-hearted
of men, and never punished if he could help it.
He felt kindly towards, the poor, and wished that
the time would come when every Frenchman should
have a fat hen to boil in his pot. And besides, he
tried to do justice between the Catholics and Cal-
vinists. He had friends on both sides, and was
anxious to make them live in peace, without fight-
ing with one another or persecuting one another — •
a plan which had been proved to convince nobody,
and only to lead to hatred, cruelty, and misery. So
he brought about a law which gave the Calvinists
HENRY IV. AND MINISTERS.
I
Henry IV. 349
leave to have places of worsliip where there was
a sufficient congregation, provided it was not where
they would annoy the Catholics. And they were
not hindered from taking offices at court or in the
arm}^ nor from keeping schools in certain places ;
and to secure all this to them, they were allowed to
hold three towns as pledges — La Rochelle, Mon-
tauban, and Montpellier. In this last, there was a
college for educating their pastors, and at each of
the three in turn there were meetings of their
clergy to consult on the affairs of the Church. This
law was called the Edict of Nantes, because Henry
had it registered by the Parliament of the old
duchy of Brittany, since each old province still
kept its own laAvs and parliament. He obtained
this Edict of Nantes Avith great difficulty, for almost
all the Catholics thought it a very wicked thing to
allow any person to remain outside tlie Church ; but
every one was worn out with the long and bloody
civil war, and was glad to rest ; so the Edict was
passed, and France began to recover.
Henry had no children, and wished to be rid of
his wife Margaret, that he might marry another, in-
stead of having to leave his crown to his young-
cousin, the Prince of Conde. So, as there had
never been real consent on the Pope's part to the
850 Young Folks' History of France,
marriage of the cousins, and as the bride had been
forced into it against her will by her mother and
brother, the Pope was persuaded to pronounce the
wedding null and void, and that the two were free
to marry again. Still, it was not easy to find a
princess, for all the Spaniards and Austrians and
their allies Avere his greatest enemies, and he could
not now marry a Protestant ; so he ended by choos-
ing one of the Medici family, Mary, who proved to
be a dull, selfish woman, not so clever as Catherine,
and not much of a companion to him.
However, she gave him two sons and three daugh-
ters, and there was never a fonder father. Once,
when the Austrian ambassador came to see him, he
was found on all-fours, with his little son riding on
Ms back, " Are ^'■ou a father, sir ? " he said to the
new-comer. " Yes, sire." " Then we will finish
our game," returned the king.
There were many of the remnants of the Leaguers
who hated the king for having once been a Hugue-
not, and for the Edict of Nantes ; and though the
love of the whole country was more and more with
him, he still was not willing to gather a great crowd
together in Paris, lest harm might follow. So, as
he had been crowned long before he was married,
the coronation of Mary de Medicis was put off,
Henry IV, 351
year after year, till it should seem safer ; but she
was vexed at the delay, and prevailed at last.
Henry was not with her, and only looked on from
a private box at the pageant, and while so doing,
he gravely said to the friend who was with him,
that he had been thinking how all this crowd would
feel if the last trumpet were at once to sound.
His own call Was nearer than he thought. The
next day, just as he had seated himself in his car-
riage, a man named Francis Ravaillac sprang on
the wheel, held a paper to him to read, and the next
moment stabbed him to the heart . with a knife, so
that he died in an instant, one of the greatest losses
his country had ever known. It was on the 14th
of May, 1610. He was greatly beloved by his
people, and his memory is affectionately cherished
to this day ; and he was really a great man, though
he would have been far greater if he had been really
good.
CHAPTER XXXTV.
LOUIS XIII.
1610—1643.
THE eldest son of Henry IV., Louis XIII., was
but nine years old when his father was killed ;
and his mother, Mary de Medicis, became regent.
She was a weak, foolish woman, and let herself be
entireh^ guided by a lady in her train, named Leo-
nora Galigai, who had married a man named Con-
cini. Mary made her son give him the title of
Marshal d'Ancre, and it was they who really ruled
France. When Leonora was asked how she man-
aged the queen, she answered, " By the poAver of
a strong mind over a weak one." But all the old
French nobles greatly hated d'Ancre for his pride
and insolence, and many declared that Leonora had
bewitched the queen.
Their rule lasted seven years ; but when the
352
CONCINI AND MARY DE MEDICIS.
Louis XIII. 355
young king was sixteen years old, a young noble-
man named Liiynes stirred liim up to free himself
from them telling him that, now he was growing
up, they would secretly kill him, that his mother
might continue regent in the name of his little
brother. So Louis desired his guards to arrest
d'Ancre next time he came to the ^^^^kice, and to
kill him if he resisted. He did resist, and was cut
down and slain, and his wife tried for bewitcliing
the queen, and put to death. Mary had to leave
the court and go into the country ; whence, after
some years of wrangling with her son, she went to
England, after her youngest daughter, Henrietta
Maria, had married King Charles I. ; and she after-
wards died in great poverty.
Louis XIII. was a strange person — slow, dull,
and cold-hearted, though not ill-disposed. His
health was bad, and he hated trouble and thinking
more than anything else. What he chiefly cared
for was to have some friend about him, who would
hunt, talk, and amuse him, while all trouble was
saved him. One very clever man was in his court,
Armand de Richelieu, Bisliop of Lu^on, who was
the ablest man in court. Albert de Luynes was
the king's first minister after d'Ancre's fall ; but
when he died of a fever, Richelieu obtained the
356 Young FoWs History of France.
management of everj^thing. He let the king have
young men as ]iis companions and favorites; but
if ever one of tliese showed any spirit, and tried to
stir up the king to act for himself and overthrow
the tyranny he lived under, Richelieu always found
it out and put the bold man to death. The king
did nothing to save his friends, and when they were
once out of his sight seemed to forget all about
them ; for in truth he disliked trouble more than
anj^thing else, and would have been ver}^ sorry to
think for himself instead of letting Richelieu think
and act for him.
The cardinal, for so the Pope created him, was
really one of the most wonderful statesmen who
ever lived, and made France a much greater and
more mighty power than ever before, and the king,
much more powerful too. He was a hard, stern
man, and did not care for justice, or for any one's
suffering, provided he could do that one thing —
make the crown of France more powerful. The
nobles, who had grown strong and haughty during
the long wars, were very sternly, and even cruelly,
put down by him. He thought nothing of getting
them accused of treason, shutting them up in prison,
or having them put to death ; and he thus man-
aged to get rid of al]- the great men who had been
LOUIS THE YIII. AA'D ALBERT DE LUTNES.
Louis XIll. 359
almost princes, such as the Count cle Montmorency,
grandson to the okl Constable.
He also made war upon the Huguenots, in spite
of the Edict of Nantes, and tried to take La Rochelle
from them. There was a long and terrible siege.
Charles I. of England sent them help ; and his
favorite, the Duke of Buckingham, was to have
had the command of the fleet that was coming to
them, but he was killed at Portsmouth, as jou have
heard. When at last the people were starved out,
after fourteen months, the cardinal made the king
himself come down to receive their submission.
La Rochelle was a terrible loss to them, and thej
were far more at the king's mercy than when they
had such a strong town. But at least the Roman
Catholic Church was in a much better state than it
had been when they had broken away from it.
Much still needed to be set right ; but some of the
worst evils had been put a stop to, and there were
many very good men among the clerg}^, especially
Francis de Sales, Bishop of Geneva, and Vincent
de Paul, a good priest, who gathered together the
poor desolate children who had no homes, and were
starving in the streets of Paris, and set good ladies
to take care of them. He also first established the
order of Sisters of Mercy, who are like nuns, only
360 Young Folks' History of France.
not shut up in convents, but going about to nurse
the sick, take care of orphans, and teach poor chil-
dren. The great ladies at court used to put on
plain dresses and go to nurse the sick in hospitals,
even the queen herself. She was a Spanish prin-
cess, called Anne of Austria — a good, kind, and
gracious lady — but no one cared for her much at
court ; and for many years she had no children, but
at last when all hope had been given up, she had
first one and then another boy, and there was im-
meuse rejoicing.
Wars were going on with the Spaniards, all
through the reign, in Italy and the Low Countries,
as well as a terrible fight between the Roman
Catholics and Protestants in Germany, which is
called the Thirty Years' War. Cardinal de Riche-
lieu managed matters so well that France always
gained the advantage ; and some excellent generals
were growing up in the army, especially the Vis-
count de Turenne, brother to the Duke of Bouillon,
and the Duke d'Enghien, eldest son of the Prince
of Conde, who gained some wonderful victories in
the Low Countries while still a mere youth.
But Richelieu's own iron rule was coming to an
end. He had been in very bad health for years,
but he never seemed to care about it, and was as
J^
.3/ '? «
*■»■' ^
'liV
i'fiii
■
iiii
BICHELIBU AND FATHEB JOSEPH.
Louis XIIL 363
ever if a friend of the king tried to take away liis
power. The Baron de Cinq Mars was put to death
for conspiring against him when he was ahnost at
the gates of the grave. He declared, when he was
receiving his hist communion, that he had always
meant to work for the honor of God and the good
of the State ; and he died, in his fifty-eighth year,
on the 4th of December, 1642, after advising the
king to trust an Italian priest named Mazarin, as
he had trusted to him.
Louis seemed to care very little for the loss of
Richelieu. He only said, " There's a great states-
man dead ; " and when there was a great storm on
the day of the funeral, he said, " The Cardinal has
a bad day for his journey." But he was in a very
weakly state himself, and only lived five months
after Richelieu, dying at forty-two years old, on the
14th of May, 1643. Never was a son more unlike
his father than he had been to Henry IV., seeming
to be his exact opposite in every one of his better or
worse qualities ; and though his reign nas a grand
one to France, it was no thanks to him, but to
the great statesman who ruled both him and the
country.
CHAPTER XXXV.
LOUIS XIV. — YOUTH.
1643—1661.
I AM Louis XIV.," cried the little five years'
old Dauphin, as he stood by his dying father's
bedside. " Not yet," the old king was still strong,
enough to say, though he did not live many more
hours. Poor child ! he did not know what he re-
joiced in. His was the longest reign that ever king
364
Louis IV. — Youth. 365
had (no less than seventy-seven years), and he was
sick and weaiy of it long before it ended.
At first his mother, Queen Anne, was Kegent, and
she trusted entirely to Mazarin. He was not a
great man, like Richelieu, but he was clever and
cunning, and the saying was, " The fox comes after
the lion ;" for as he was a foreigner, and of low
birth, the French found it much harder to submit
to him, than to Richelieu, who was of one of the
noblest families in France. Only four days after
the accession of the little king, the Duke of
d'Enghien won the great battle of Rocroy, in the
Low Countries, which quite destroyed the fine old
SjDanish foot soldiers ; and after two more victories,
peace was made between France and Spain. But
this did not make things easier for Mazarin, for all
the nobles who had been away with the army came
home, with nothing to do, and especially the Duke
d'Enghien, who soon, on his father's death, became
Prince of Conde, and who was proud and fiery, and
hated the upstart Mazarin.
All this hatred broke out in a great quarrel be-
tween the queen and the parliament of Paris. You
must remember that the parliament of Paris was
a very different thing from the English parliament,
It did not represent the whole kingdom, for each
366 Young FolJcs' History of France.
of the great old provinces had a separate parlia-
ment of its own ; and it was only made up of the
lawyers of Paris, and the great nobles who be-
longed to the old duchy of France, with the bishops
and princes of the blood-royal. It used to judge
peers of France for State offences, and in matters
of property ; but it could not make laws or grant
taxes. All it could do was to register the laws and
the taxes when the king had made them ; and the
king's acts were not valid till this had been done.
Now, when Mazarin, in the king's name laid an un-
just tax on all the food that was brought into Paris,
the parliament refused to register the act, and there
was a great struggle, which is known by the strange
name of the Fronde. Fronde is the French name
of a sling ; and in the earlier part of the quarrel
the speakers used to stand up and throw sharp
words at one another, then draw back, just like little
boys slinging stones at one another. But they soon
came to much worse weapons. You could not un-
derstand or remember all the strauge things that
then took place ; it is enough for the present to re-
member that the Fronde was the effort of parlia-
ment to stand up against the royal power, and that^
there were two sieges of Paris in the course of it.
The Prince of Conde at first would not turn against
Louis XIV. — Youth. 367
the king, and helped to make a short peace ; but
then he insisted on the queen sending Mazarin
away, and when he was gone, the queen found
Cond^ such a stern, insolent master, that she con-
trived to get Mazarin back, and he threw Conde
into prison. Conde's wife joined with the other
Frondeurs to trj^ to gain his freedom again, and he
was set free, but only to make another war, in
which, however, he was overcome, and forced to go
into banishment, when, to his shame be it spoken,
he joined the Spaniards, and helped them to make
war against his own country.
It was no small punishment for him that Mar-
shal Turenne was commanding the French, and
Conde was under a very lazy, indolent Spanish gen-
eral, so that he was sure that there must be a de-
feat. He said to the Duke of York, who Avas
serving with him, " Now you will see how a battle
ousfht not to be fouofht."
For this was the time when all King Charles's
family were living scattered about in banishment.
Queen Henrietta was at Paris with her youngest
daughter ; but when Oliver Cromwell made a
treaty with the French, he had required that
Charles II. and his brother, the Duke of York,
should not be allowed to live in France.
368 Youncf Folks' History of France.
Cardinal Mazarin followed up all the plans of
Riclielieu, and France went on prospering and gain-
ing victories, until the Spaniards at last, in the year
1659, made what is called the Peace of the Pyr-
enees, giving up several towns in the Low Coun-
tries. The young King Louis was to forgive the
Prince of Conde, and to marry Maria Teresa, the
daughter of the King of Spain.
Only two years later died Cardinal Mazarin,
leaving an immense fortune. He had, like Richelieu,
cared for the greatness of the kingdom of France and
for the power of the crown more than for the charac-
ter of the king who held all this power, and so he had
let the young king grow up very ignorant, for fear of
being interfered with. Anne of Austria, who was a
good woman, tried hard to make her boys religious,
and they always respected religion ; but their flatter-
ers did not teach them how it should tame their pride
or make them care for the good of the people, and
Louis XIV. grew up thinking that the nation was
made for his glory, and not himself for the good of
his people. Yet he was a wonderfully able man.
Mazarin said, " There is stuff in him to make four
kings, and an honest man into the bargain. When
the cardinal died, and the ministers asked to whom
they should come, he answered, " To myself;" and
DEATH OF CARDINAL, MAZARIN.
Louis XIV. — Youth. 373
for all the half-centuiy after that his reign lasted, he
was always ready for them. He tried afterwards
to study and make up for the neglect of his youth,
but he never was the same he might have been with
good training. One thing he had from his mother,
namely, the grandest and most stately courtesy
and the most kingly manners that perhaps were
ever seen. He never received a courtsey from a
woman without a bow, and his gracious dignity
seems fairly to have dazzled the eyes of the very
best and wisest men, so that they looked up to him
like a sort of divinity, and could not even see his
faults. His court was exceedingly splendid, and
very stiff. Every one had his place there, and
never came out of it : and who must stand or who
might sit, who might be on stools and who must
kneel, in the royal presence, was thought a matter
of the greatest importance. Richelieu and Maza-
rin had robbed the nobles of all useful work ; so
all thev cared for was Avar and waitino^ at court,
and getting money from their poor peasants to sup-
port expense.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
LOTJIS XIV.
MIDDLE AGE,
1661—1688.
LOUIS XIV. loved to be called the Great, but
he did not understand that real greatness is
making a kingdom happier instead of making it
larger, and he only cared for his own glory. He
had the two best generals then in Europe, the
Viscount de Turenne and the Prince of Conde, and
374
Louis XIV. — Middle Age. 375
his nobles were very brave and spirited ; so lie was
always going to war, without thinking whether it
was justly or not, and fancying the honor was his,
whereas his victories were all owing to his generals ;
and when he went out to war, he only went to the
siege of some city, where he rode about in a splen-
did gold-laced coat, with a huge Avhite feather in
his cocked hat, quite out of reach of danger. And
yet his people were all so proud of him that the
very sight of him made his soldiers fight all the
better, and poets wrote verses comparing him to
Jupiter and Mars, and every other warlike hero
they could think of.
He had married Maria Teresa, daughter to the
King of Spain ; and when her father died, he pre-
tended that he ought to inherit all the Low Coun-
tries instead of her little brother Charles. This
was very unjust, and would have made France
much too powerful ; so the Dutch and English
joined together to prevent it, and there were some
terrible fights. But it was when Charles II. was
king, and his youngest sister, Henrietta, had mar-
ried Louis's brother, the Duke of Orleans. So
Louis sent the duchess to persuade King Charles
and his minister, by promises of money and favor,
to desert the Dutch ; and to the great shame of the
376 Young Folks' History of France.
English, she succeeded. The brave Dutch were
left alone agamst all the power of France. William,
Prince of Orange, commanded their armies ; and
though he was beaten again and again, the little
State ncA^er gave in ; though to keep out the
French, it was needful to open the flood-gates that
protect Holland from the sea, and let in so much
water that the enemy could not pass.
Then the Emperor of Germany took up the
cause of the Dutch, but Louis sent Turenne against
his troops, and conquered Alsace. Turenne went
on into Germany, and there liis army was grievously
cruel. Crops were burnt down, houses and villages
burnt and plundered, and the inhabitants brought
to misery beyond imagination. Turenne could
hardly help what he was commanded to do, but this
war was the darkest spot in his life. He was a
kind and merciful man in general, and ver}^ just
and upright ; and his soldiers loved him so much,
that once, when he had fallen asleep during a short
halt on a bare, bleak hill-side, and it began to snow,
they made a tent for him with their own cloaks.
In this war he was killed, while standing under a
tree near the village of Salzbach,by a cannon-shot,
which nearly cut his body in two, and mortally
wounded a nobleman close by. " Do not weep for
^ Si-^
"-y^-
DEATH OF TUEENNE.
Louis XIV. — Middle Age. 3T9
me, but for that great man," were the words of
this gentleman to his son. Turenne was buried
among the kings at St. Denys, and Conde took
command of the army, gaining many hard-fought
battles ; until at last peace was made, leaving Louis
in possession of Alsace and of the city of Stras-
burg, both of which properly belonged to the
empire.
But glory, or what he fancied glory, was all Louis
cared about ; and besides his great generals, he .had
about him many of the ablest men who had ever
lived in France, both ministers of State and writers.
He had likewise most excellent bishops and clergy,
such as Bossuet, bishop of Meaux, who was a won-
derfully good preacher, as well as a great scholar.
Louis made Bossuet tutor to his only son ; but the
Dauphin was a very dull and silly youth, who cared
for nothing but playing at cards and shooting, and
very little could be taught him. He married a
German princess, who was duller still, and the}*
had three sons, the Dukes of Burgundy, Anjou,
and Berri. To them the king gave as tutor, Pens-
ion, Archbishop of Cambrai, one of the best and
holiest men then living. The Duke of Burgundy,
was a fiery, selfish, passionate boy ; but under Fdn-
elon he learnt to rule himself, and his whole thought
380 Young Folks' Eistory of France.
was how to be a good religious prince, heedful of
his people rather than himself. Fenelon would not
have thought it right to blame the king himself,
but he could not teach the young prince his duties
without showing something very different from
Louis XIV. as a model. He wrote a story for him
of a young Greek prince named Telemachus, who
went on his travels in search of his father, and saw
all forms of government in his way. A servant
who was employed to write out the story, stole a
copy, and sent it to Holland and had it printed
there ; and when the old king saAv it, he was keen-
sighted enough to perceive that it was meant to
teach his grandson how to be a better king than
himself, and he hated Fenelon accordingly. How-
ever, it was not for this open reason that the good
archbishop was kept awa}^ from court, but because
he had taken the part of a religious lad}/- named
Madam Guyon, who had written a book about the
Love of God, where there were sentences that
Bossuet thought likely to do harm. Fenelon wrote
a book himself on the subject ; and though the
Pope could see no fault in it, Louis forced him to
condemn it, and Fenelon submitted most meekly,
and went on quietly with his work in his own dio-
cese at Cambrai, often writing to his dear pupil,
Louis XIV. — Middle Age. 381
though he was only once allowed to see him again.
Louis lost his wife, Maria Teresa of Spain, and
then married a lady called Madam de Maintenon ;
but he never owned her as his queen, and not more
than three or four people at court knew that she
was his wife. He looked up to her and respected-
her opinion very much ; and she used to sit by with
her work when he was consulting with his . minis-
ters, and he would ask at the end, " What does
your solidity think ? She was very religious, and
tried to make him so ; but he was so proud that he
never could bear to think that our Blessed Lord
had been a poor man and humble. And the one
thing she could make him do was a sad one, and
that was to persecute. All the poor nuns of Port
Royal were turned out, and shut up in other con-
vents, because they held fast to the teachings of
their old guide, M. de St. Cyran. And, what was
worse, she led him to repeal the Edict of Nantes,
which protected the Huguenots, and begin to per-
secute them. Dragoons were quartered in their
houses, who ate up their food, spoilt their goods,
and tortured them to make them become Catholic ;
they were allowed no schools ; their children were
taken away to be bred up in convents ; numbers
were thrown into prison ; and if they were caught
B82 Young Folks'' History of France.
escaping, they were sent to work as convicts, or
put to death. However, many did escape to Eng-
land and Prussia, and the English gave them a kind
welcome. Many who came from the south were
silk weavers, and settled at Spitalfields, Avhere they
worked and flourished for several generations.
Some, who were noblemen, came to court, and were
officers in the army ; and the loss to France became
gain to England.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
LOUIS XIV.
OLD AGE.
1688—1715.
IX 1688, Louis lost the English alliance. Charles
II. and James II. having spent their youth in
France, and being Roman Catholics — the one at
heart, and the other openly — had always looked
up to him and been led by him ; but when the
Revolution took place and James was driven away
383
884 Toung Folks' History of France.
to take refuge once more in France, Louis's greatest
enemy, William of Orange, became King of Eng-
land. Louis gave James and his queen a home at
his palace of St. Germain's, and did all he could for
them, sending an expedition with James to Ireland ;
but all in vain — the English only hated James the
more for bringing the French upon them, and his
troops were beaten at the river Boyne and his ships
at Cape La Hogue, so that he was obliged to cease
from the attempt.
But another great war soon began. Charles IL,
King of Spain, died in 1700, leaving no children.
His sister and his two aunts had married Emperors
of Germany and Kings of France ; but as the
Spaniards did not choose to have their kingdom
joined on to another, it was always the custom for
the princesses to renounce all right to the crown
for themselves and their children. However, the
whole Spanish line had come to an end, and there
really was nobody else who had any right at all.
Now, Louis XIV. had married the sister, so his son
was the nearest heir ; but, on the other hand, the
Emperor of Germany was descended from the
brother of the great Charles V., who had been Em-
peror and King of Spain both at once. The emperor
wanted to make his second son, the Archduke
Louis IK— Old Age. 385
Charles, King of Spain ; and. Louis put forward liis
second grandson, Pliilip, Duke of Anjou.
The Spaniards woukl have preferred Charles, but
Louis was ready first. He made the Dauphin and
Duke of Burgundy give up their right to Philip,
saluted him as King of Spain, and sent him off with
an army to Madrid, saying, "There are no more
Pyrenees ;" by which he meant that France and
Spain were now to be like only one country. Now
this was just what the rest of the world did not
wish. France was a great deal too powerful al-
ready, and nobody could be glad to see Spain and
the Low Countries ruled over by a young man who
was sure to do exactly what his grandfather bade
him ; and so England and all the other States of
Europe joined to assist the Archduke Charles in
winning Spain.
Thus began what was called the War of the
Spanish Succession. The Archduke Charles went
to Spain, and the English helped him there ] and a
French army invaded Germany, but there they met
the English and Austrian armies, under the Duke
of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy, and
w^ere terribly defeated at Blenheim.
The Prince Eugene's father had alwa3^s lived in
France, and his mother was a niece of Cardinal
386 Young Folks' History of France.
Mazarin ; but he and some other young men had
grown tired of the dull court life, and had run
away to fight in the Austrian army against the
Turks. Louis had been very angry, and had had
their letters seized ; and there he found himself
laughed at, and called a stage king in peace, and a
chess king in war. He was very angry, and never
forgave Prince Eugene, who took service under the
Emj)eror of Germany, and was the second-best
general then in Europe. For all the great generals
of Louis's youth were dead ; and though Marshals
Villars and Boufflers were able men, they were not
equal to Marlborough, and were beaten again and
again in the Low Countries. The only victory the
French did gain was in Spain, at Almanza, where,
strangely enough, the English were commanded by
a French Huguenot, and the French by Marl-
borough's nephew, the Dnke of Berwick, who had
left home with James II.
But troubles came thick upon Louis XIV. He
lost his only son, known in history as the Grand
Dauphin, to distinguish him from the other two
princes who successively bore that title in the reign
of Louis XIV. ; and all his great men who had
made his reign so sj^leiidid were dying round him,
and nobody rising up equal to them. His subjects,
Louis XIV.— Old Age. 387
too, were worn out ; all their strongest young men
had been carried off to be soldiers, and there were
not enough left to till the ground properly. Be-
sides, the money that the king wanted for his wars
and buildings was far more than they could pay,
and it was the tradesmen, farmers, and lawyers
who had to pay it all ; for in France no priest and
no noble ever paid taxes. Moreover, all the family
of a noble was considered as noble for ever, instead
of, as it is in England, only the head of the house
himself; and so all the younger §pns and their
children for ever paid no taxes, and were allowed
to be of no profession, but only to be clergy or
soldiers. They were always the officers, so that a
soldier, however clever and brave, never could rise
unless he was of good birth. People were getting
very discontented, and especially when, instead of
getting glory, they were always beaten, at Ramillies
and Oudenarde and Malplaquet ; and Louis's build-
ings and gardens at Versailles and Trianon heavily
oppressed them.
Old as Louis was, there was untamable pride and
resolution in him, and his steadiness was admired
even by his enemies, when he continued dauntlessly
to resist even when there seemed little to hinder
Marlborough aud Eugene from marching upon
888 Young Folks' History of ^France.
Paris. However, this humiliation was spared the
proud old king by the change in Queen Anne's
councils, which deprived Marlborough of power,
and led to a peace at last with France. The Arch-
duke Charles became emperor after the death of
his father and brother ; and thus Philip of Anjou
was allowed to remain King of Spain.
Everything, however, was sad and mournful at
the French court. The king kept up all his old
state, but his strength and spirit were gone ; and
Madam de Maintenon used to say no one could
guess what a dreadful thing it was to have to amuse
an unamusable king. The brightest person at
court was the young Dauphiness, Adelaide of
Savoy, wife to the Duke of Burgundy, who was
now Dauphin. She used to play merrily with the
knig, and coax him into cheerfulness as no one else
could ; but she was giddy and gay, and sometimes
grieved her husband. He was a grave, thoughtful
man, very pious and religious, always trying to fol-
low the counsels of his dear friend and master,
F^nelon, and thinking anxiously of the load that
the kingdom would be in the state in which his
grandfather would leave it.
But he never had to bear that load. A dreadful
form of malignant measles came into the court, and
DEATH OF LOUIS XFV.
Louis XIV. — Old Age. 891
tlie Dauphiness caught it and died, then the eldest
of her two little sons, and lastly, the good Dauphin
himself. All were ill so very few days that people
talked about poison ; and no one was left of the
whole family except the old king and one little
great-grandson, the Dauphin's second son, a baby
not able to walk alone, and the king's nephew,
Philip, Duke of Orleans, the son of his brother,
who was known to be a very bad and selfish man.
It was a sad prospect for France, when, a year
later, Louis XIY. died, after a reign of seventy
years, when he had been the greatest monarch in
Europe, and might have been one of the grandest
of men, if he had only known what true greatness is.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
LOUIS XY.
1715— ir<4.
THE poor little boy who had become Kmg of
France was so young that he could scarcely
walk alone, and so forlorn that he had no kinsman
near enough to take his hand when he was shown
to the people, but had to be held in purple ribbon
leading-strings.
It was a sad reign altogether. The regent was the
Duke of Orleans, a thoroughly dissipated man, not
unlike the English Charles II., but worse in conduct,
though quite as good-natured ; and the whole court
became nothing but a sink of iniquity under him.
He died just as the young king was growing up ;
but the boy was slow, dull, and painfully shy — not
at all fit to take the command of every thing, like
Louis XIV. He had had a good tutor, Cardinal
392
"1 ^ ''/■/ A /
MAKIA LECZINSKA",
Louis XK 395
Fleury, who was ruler for a little while, but soon
died ; and then there was nothing to hinder the
king from being drawn into all sorts of evil by
the wicked men who had grown up in the time of
the regent, Duke of Orleans.
The queen was a Polish princess, named Maria
Leczinska. She was a gentle, kindly person, though
not at all clever, and at first the king was very fond
of her ; but these wretches thought it dull to have
a respectable court, and wanted to manage the king
their own way, so they taught him to be a glutton
and a drunkard, and to think it witty to talk the
low, coarse language of the vulgar crowd in Paris.
The queen was shocked, and when she showed her
offence, Louis was angry, and never cared for her
again, but only showed himself with her in public,
and spent all his spare time in the most disgraceful
amusements.
Yet the people, who did not know all as yet, had
such a love and loyalty for the very name of king,
that they were ready to break their hearts when he
had a bad fever, and almost went mad with joy
when he recovered. They then called him Louis
the Well-beloved, a name that sounded very sad in
after times.
There was a great war going on all this time be-
396 Young FoWs History of France,
tween Maria Theresa, tlie Queen of Hungary and
Archduchess of Austria, and Frederick II., King
of Prussia. The English held with the Austrians,
and the French with the Prussians; and at the
battle of Dettingen George 11. had defeated the
Marshal de Noailles. Again, at Fontenoy the Eng-
lish were defeated; and though Louis XV. was
with the army, the victory was owing to his general,
Marshal Saxe. The wars, however, pressed heavily
on the French, and the poor were even more
wretched than in the former reign. The Duke of
Orleans, a good man, son to the wicked regent, one
day brought a horrible bit of black bread to the
council to show the king what his subjects lived
upon ; but nothing would make Louis care for any-
body but himself.
However, there was peace made for a little while,
but what was called the Seven Years' War soon
broke out again ; but this time the English were
with the Prussians and the French with the Aus-
trians, and there was a great battle at Minden,
which the French lost, and soon after there was a
more lasting peace in Europe.
But nothing could do the unfortunate kingdom
of France any good while it had such a king as
Louis XV., who had no feeling for any one but
BATTLE OF FONTENOY.
I
Louis XV. 899
himself, and had such low tastes that he liked
nothing but the basest, coarsest pleasures, and
hated all that interfered with them. He had only
one son, the Dauphin, who had grown up, in the
midst of that wicked court, pure, upright, and
pious, and lived a peaceful, quiet life with his good
wife, a Polish princess ; but there Avas nobody the
king disliked so much, because their goodness was
a continual reproof, and he could not help think-
ing that the people would rather have had the
Dauphin for their king than himself. So the
Dauphin was never allowed to take any part in
business, and all he could do was to try to brino-
up his children well, and to help his four sisters,
whom the king had scarcely educated at all, and
who lived a very dull life in the palace, so that the
happiest was Madame Louise, who became a nun.
The good Dauphin died of a decline, when only
thirty-six years old, leaving five children, the
eldest eleven years old ; and his wife followed him
fifteen months after, begging her sisters-in-law to
watch over her children. The king only grew
worse than ever, and used to amuse himself by
going in disguise to low dances among the Paris
mob. Yet all the time he went every morning to
church ; and among all the clergy in the country,
400 Young Folks'' History of France,
only one good Bishop once dared to tell Mm what
a sinner he was. There were still a great many-
good clergy, but it was only the bad ones who
would not speak out about the wickedness at court
who met with any favor. Half the people in the
country were getting mad with misery ; and when
they saw that the priests did nothing to rebuke all
the crimes they suffered from, it seemed to them
that even the Christian religion itself must be a
mistake. There were a great many clever men at
that time, of whom the most noted were Voltaire
and Rousseau, who wrote books that everyone was
reading, which made attacks on all Christianity,
and pretended that the old heathen philosophers
were much better and wiser than Christians ; and
it was a strange thing that though Huguenots were
still persecuted, and their religious books burnt,
nobody meddled . with these infidels, who had no
religion at all.
Everyone saw that a great storm was coming,
and that there must be a terrible downfall of the
royal power that Richelieu, Mazarin, and Louis
XIV. had built up, and which Louis XV. used so
shamefully ; but when he was told that there
was danger, he only said the kingdom would last
his time. His grandson, the young Dauphin, had
Louis XV. 401
grown up, and was married to the beautiful, bright
young daughter of Maria Theresa — Marie Antoi-
nette. The evening she arrived at Paris, there
were grand illuminations and fireworks, and in the
midst some terror seized the people that there was
a fire, and they all rushed crowding together in
the gates of the Champs Elysees, so that a number
of them were trampled to death ; and this, though
the poor young bride had nothing to do with it,
made people feel that it had been a bad beginning.
Louis XY. died at the age of sixty-four, in the
year 17T4, after a disgraceful reign of sixty years,
in which he had constantly fallen deeper and
deeper into the mire of sin and disgrace.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
LOUIS XVI.
1774—1793.
THE yoimg king, Louis XVI., and liis queen,
Marie Antoinette, threw themselves on
their knees when they lieard that their grandfather
was dead, crying out, " O God ! help us ; we are
too 3^oung to reign."
It was as if they knew what dreadful times were
402
„'i'l I
^-JsJliiill^T^] "
Lours XVI.
Louis XVT. 405
coming, brought on by the selfishness and wicked-
ness of those who had gone before them. Nobody
could be more good or anxious to set things right
than Louis XYI. ; but the evils that had been
working up for hundreds of years could not be set
to rights b}^ one word, and it was hard to know
how to begin. And though the king wished well
to all, he was not a clever man, and could not see
how to act. Besides, he was very shy and awk-
ward ; he hated speaking to strangers, and was so
confused that people went away offended ; and,
besides, they were so much used to bad kings, that
they could not believe that he was a good and
innocent man.
The queen gave offence in other ways. She
was a young, merry girl, who had been brought up
in a court where the habits were much more simple
and less stately than those in France ; and she was
always laughing at the formal court ways, and tr}^-
ing to get free from them. When the ladies came
to pay their respects, some of her own attendants
grew tired of standing round her, and sat down
on the floor, hidden by the hoops of the others.
She saw and nodded and smiled ; and the old
ladies who were being presented thought she was
making game of their dresses, and were very
406 Young Folks' History of France.
angry. Her chief lad}^ of the bedchamber, the
Duchess of Noailles, tried to keep her in order ;
but she laughed, and gave the old lady the name
of Madame I'Etiquette. When once she was
riding a donkey, and it fell with her, she sat on
the ground laughing till the duchess came up, and
then said, " Pray, madame, when the queen and
her donkey both tumble down together, which
ought to be the first to get up? "
The great palace that Louis XIY. had adorned
at Versailles was so grand that nobody could live
in it in comfort. Even he had made a smaller one
at Trianon, and this was too stately for the queen's
tastes ; so she had another smaller house, with a
farm and dairy, where she and her ladies used to
amuse themselves, in white muslin dresses and
straw hats i but the people would not believe but
that something very wrong went on there ; and
hated her greatly because she was an Austrian, and
her country had been at war with theirs.
It was just then that the Americans began their
war with George IIL, and a young French noble-
man, the Marquis de la Fayette, ran away from
home to fight in the army. Afterwards, Louis
XVI. sent troops to help them ; and the sight of
the freedom the United States had gained made
Louis XVL 407
Lafayette and his friends feel far more bitterly the
state of things at home, where the poor were
ground down to wretchedness by all the old rights
of their lords ; and till the laws were changed,
neither king, nobles, nor clergy, however much
they might wish it, could help them. No one felt
this more than the king himself. At last, in 1789,
he called together his States-General — that is, all
his peers, and deputies from the towns and prov-
inces, to see what could be done. It was not like
the English parliament, where the peers form one
chamber and the commons another : but they were
all mixed up together, and there were a great many
more deputies than peers, so that they had it all
their own way. Besides, they sat in the middle of
Paris, and the people of the city could not bear to
wait. Perhaps it was no wonder, for they were
very poor and miserable, and were fierce with
hunger. Whenever they saw anyone whom they
fancied was against the changes, they used to fly
at him, crying out, " To the lamp ! " and hang him
up to the lamps, which were fastened by iron rods
over the streets.
They rushed to the great old prison, the Bastile,
where the former kings had kept their State pris-
oners, and tore it down ; but they found hardly
408 Young Folks' History of France.
anyone there, for Louis XYI. had released all his
grandfather's prisoners. Most of the men were
enrolled in what was called the National Guard,
and all wore cockades, and scarfs of red, blue, and
white. Lafayette was made general of this guard.
The States-General called itself the National
Assembly, and went on changing the laws. It
was at first settled that no law could be passed
without the king's consent ; but the notion that
he could stop any plan added to the people's
hatred, and they were always fancying he would
bring his soldiers to stop the reforms. At last,
when there was a scarcity of food in Paris, the mob
all rushed out to Versailles, that most splendid of
palaces, upon which Louis XIV. had spent so
much, and whose iron gates looked down the long
avenue of trees leading from Paris, a memorial
how little pity for their people the two last kings
had had. It was the less wonder that the mob of
Paris believed that Louis XVI. and Marie Antoi-
nette had the same hard hearts, and were willingly
letting them starve. They came and filled the
courts of the palace, shouting and yelling for the
queen to show herself. She came out on the bal-
cony, with her daughter of twelve years old and
her son of six. " No children! " they cried; and
Louis XVI. 409
she sent tliem back, and stood, fully believing that
they would shoot her, and hoping that her death
might content thenio But no hand was raised, and
night came on. In the night they were seized with
another fit of fury, and broke into the queen's
room, from which she had but just escaped, while
a brave lady and two of her guards were barring
the outer door.
The next day the whole family were taken back
into Paris, while the fishwomen shouted before
them, " Here come the baker, his wife, and the lit-
tle baker's boy ! "
The l^ational Assembly went on to take away
all the rights of the nobles, and the property of
the Church, and to decree that the clergy must
swear to obey them instead of the Church, while
those who refused were turned out of their par-
ishes. The National Guard watched the Tuileries,
and made the life of the royal family so miserable
that they tried to escape in disguise ; but fearing
that they would come back with armies to put
down the Revolution, the National Guard seized
and stopped them, and they were more closely
watched than ever. On the 20th of June, 1792,
the mob rushed into the palace, threatened all the
family , and spent three hours in rioting and insulting
410 Young Folks' History af France.
them ; and on the 10th of August another attack was
made. The queen longed to let the Swiss guards
and the loyal gentlemen fight for her husband ; but
Louis could not bear to have a drop of blood shed
in his defence, and hoped to save life by going to the
ISTational Assembly with his wife, children, and
sister ; but no sooner were they gone, than every
one of the gallant men who would have defended
him was savagely massacred, and their heads were
carried about the streets of Paris on pikes. It
was fear that made the Parisians so ferocious, for
the German princes and the French nobles had
collected an army to deliver the king, and, as the
mob thought, to destroy them : and in the bitter
hatred that had now risen against all kings, the
Assembly voted that Louis XVI. was no longer
King of France, but that the nation was free. So
his reign ended on the 10th of August, 1792.
CHAPTER XL.
THE GREAT FRENCH REVOLUTION".
1792—1796.
THE Government, after the king was deposed^
was placed in the hands of the National
Assembly — or Convention, as it now called it-
self — of deputies chosen by the people.
There is nothing but what is sad and terrible to
be told of France for the next four or five years,
and the whole account of what happened would
be too hard for you to understand, and some part is
too dreadful to dwell upon.
The short account of it is that, for years and
years before, the kings, the nobles, and some of
the clergy too, had cared for little but their own
pride and pleasure, and had done nothing to help
on their people — teach, train, or lead them. So
now these people were wild with despair ; and
when the hold on them was a little loosened, they
411
412 Young Folks' History of France,
threw it off, and turned in furious rage upon their
masters. Hatred grew, and all those who had
once been respected were looked on as a brood of
wolves, who must be done away with, even the
young and innocent. The king, queen, his chil-
dren, and sister (Madame Elisabeth), were shut
up in a castle called the Temple, because it had
once belonged to the Knights Templars, and there
they were very roughly and unkindly treated. A
National Guard continually watched them, and
these men were often shockingly rude and insult-
ing to them, though the}* were as patient as possi-
ble. Great numbers of the nobles and clergy
were shut up in the other prisons ; and when news
came that an army of Germans and emigrant
nobles was marching to rescue the king, a set of
ruffians were sent to murder them all, cutting them
down like sheep for the slaughter, men and women
all alike. The family in the Temple were spared
for the time, but the emigrant army Avas beaten at
Jemappes ; and the brave nobles and peasants who
had risen in the district of La Vendee, in hopes of
saving them, could not make head against the
regular French army, all of which had joined in
the Revolution, being angered because no one not
of noble birth could be an officer. All his friends
MARAT.
The Grreat IFrench Revolution. 415
did for the king only served to make his enemies
hate him trebly ; and three men had obtained the
leadership who seem to have had a regular thirst
for blood, and to have thought that the only way
to make a fresh beginning was to kill everyone
Avho had inherited any of the rights that had been
so oppressive. Their names were Marat, Danton,
and Robespierre ; and they had a power over the
minds of the Convention and the mob which no
one dared resist, so that this time was called the
Reign of Terror. A doctor named Guillotin had
invented a machine for cutting off heads quickly
and painlessly, Avhich was called by his name ; and
this horrible instrument was set up in Paris to do
this work of cutting off the old race. The king
— whom they called Louis Capet, after Hugh, the
first king of his line — was tried before the
Assembly, and sentenced to die. He forgave his
murderers, and charged the Irish clergyman, named
Edgworth, who was allowed to attend him in his
last moments, to take care that, if his family were
ever restored, there should be no attempt to
revenge his death. The last words of the priest
to him were, "Son of St. Louis, ascend to the
skies."
The queen and her children remained in the
416 Young Folks' History of France.
Temple, cheered by the piety and kindness of
Madame Elisabeth, until the poor little prince — a
gentle, but spirited boy of eight — was taken from
them, and shut up in the lower rooms, under the
charge of a brutal wretch (a shoemaker) named
Simon, who was told that the boy was not to be
killed or guillotined, but to be "got rid of" —
namely, tormented to death by bad air, bad living,
blows, and rude usage. Not long after, Marie
Antoinette was taken to a dismal chamber in the
Conciergerie prison, and there watched day and
night by National Guards, until she too was
brought to trial, and sentenced to die, eight months
after her husband. Gentle Madame Elisabeth was
likewise put to death, and only the two children
remained, shut up in separate rooms ; but the girl
was better off than her brother, in that she was
alone, with her little dog, and had no one who
made a point of torturing her.
Meanwhile the guillotine was every day in
use. Cart-loads were carried from the prisons —
nobles, priests, ladies, young girls, lawyers, ser-
vants, shopkeepers — everybody whom the savage
men who were called the Committee of public
Safety chose to condemn. There were guillotines
in almost every town ; but at Nantes the victims
The G-reat French Revolution. 417
were drowned, and at Lyons they were placed in a
square and shot down with grape shot.
Moreover, all churches were taken from the
faithful. A Avicked woman was called the Goddess
of Reason, and carried in a car to the great cathe-
dral of Notre Dame, where she was enthroned.
Sundays were abolished, and every tenth day was
kept instead, and Christianity was called folly and
superstition ; in short, the wliole nation was given
up to the most horrible frenzy against God and
man.
In the midst, Marat was stabbed to the heart by
a girl named Charlotte Corday, who hoped thus to
end these horrors ; but the other two continued
their work of blood, till Robespierre grew jealous
of Danton, and had him guillotined ; but at last
the more humane of the National Convention
plucked up courage to rise against him, and he and
his inferior associates were carried to prison. He
tried to commit suicide with a pistol, but only
shattered his jaw, and in this condition he was
guillotined, when the Reign of Terror had lasted
about two years.
There was much rejoicing at his fall ; the prisons
were opened, and people began to breathe freely
once more. The National Convention governed
418 Young Folks' History of Prance.
more mildly and reasonably ; but they had a great
deal on their hands, for France had gone to war
with all the countries round ; and the soldiers
were so delighted at the freedom they had obtained,
that it seemed as if no one could beat them, so
that the invaders were everywhere driven back.
And thus was brought to light the wonderful
powers of a young Corsican officer. Napoleon
Bonaparte, who had been educated at a military
school in France as an engineer. When there was
an attempt of the mob to rise and bring back the
horrible days of the Reign of Terror, Colonel
Bonaparte came with his grape shot, and showed
that there was a government again that must be
obeyed, so that some quiet and good order was
restored.
Some pity had at last been felt for the poor chil-
dren in the Temple. It came too late to save the
life of the boy, Louis XYII., as he is reckoned, who
had for the whole ninth year of his life lain alone
in a filth}^ room, afraid to call anyone lest he should
be ill-used, and without spirit enough to wash him-
self, so that he was one mass of sores and dirt ;
and he only lingered till the 8th of June, 1795,
when he died, thinking he heard lovely music,
with his mother's voice among: the rest. In the
The Great French Revolution. 419
end of the same year his sister was released^ and
went to Russia to join her uncle, who had fled at
the beginning of the Revolution, and was now
owned b}^ the loyal among the French as Louis
XVIII.
In the meantime, the French army had beaten
the Germans on the frontier, and had decided on
attacking their power in the north of Italy. Bona-
parte made a most wonderful passage of the Alps,
where there were scarcely any roads but bridle-
paths, and he gained amazing victories. His plan
was to get all the strength of his army up into one
point, as it were, and with that to fall upon the
centre of the enemy ; and as the old German gen-
erals did not understand this way of fighting, and
were not ready, he beat them everywhere, and won
all Lombardy, which he persuaded to set up for a
republic, under the protection of the French.
All this time, the French were under so many
different varieties of government, that you would
not understand them at all ; but that which lasted
longest was called the Directory. People were be-
ginning to feel safe at last ; the emigrants were
coming home again, and matters were settling down
a little more.
CHAPTER XLL
NAPOLEON I.
1796—1814.
WHEN Bonaparte had come back from Italy,
he persuaded the Directory to send him
with an army to Egypt to try to gain the East, and
drive the English out of India. He landed in
Egypt, and near Grand Cairo gained the battle of
the Pyramids, and tried to recommend himself to
the people of Egypt by showing great admiration
for Mahomet and the Koran. But his ships, which
he had left on the coast, were attacked by the
English fleet, under Sir Horatio "Nelson, and every
one of them taken or sunk except two, which car-
ried the tidings home. This was the battle of the
Nile.
The Sultan of Turkey, to whom Egypt belonged,
fitted out an army against the French, and Bona-
420
Wapolfon I. 421
parte marched to meet it half-way in the Holy Land-
There he took Jaffa, cruelly massacred the Turkish
garrison, and beat the Sultan's army at Tabor ; but
Acre was so bravely and well defended, under the
management of a brave English sailor. Sir Sidney
Smith, that he was obliged to turn back without
taking it. He led his troops back, suffering sadly
from hunger and sickness, to Egypt, and there de-
feated another Turkish army in the battle of Abou-
kir. However, he there heard news from home
which showed him that he was needed. The
French had, indeed, gone on to stir up a revolution
both in Rome and Naples. The Pope was a pris-
oner in France, and the King of Naples had fled to
Sicily ; but the Russians had come to the help of
the other nations, and the French had nearly been
driven out of Lombardy. Besides, the Directory
was not able to keep the unruly people in order;
and Napoleon felt himself so much wanted, that,
finding there were two ships in the port, he em-
barked in one of them and came home, leaving his
Egyptian army to shift for themselves.
However, he was received at home like a con-
queror ; and the people of France were so proud of
him, that he soon persuaded them to change the
Directory for a government of three consuls, of
422 Young Folks' History of France.
whom he was the first. He lived in the Tuileries,
and began to keep something very like the old
court ) and his wife, Josephine, was a beautiful,
graceful, kind lady, whom every one loved, and
who helped very much in gaining people over to
his cause. Indeed, he gave the French rest at
home and victories abroad, and that was all they
desired. He won back all that had been lost in
Italy ; and the battle of Marengo, on the 14th of
June, 1800, when the Austrians were totally routed,
was a splendid victory. Austria made peace again,
and nobody was at war with France but England,
which conquered everywhere by sea, as France did
by land. The last remnant of the French army in
Egypt was beaten at Alexandria, and obliged to let
the English ships transport them to France ; and
after this there was a short peace called the Peace
of Amiens, but it did not last long ; and as soon as
Bonaparte had decided on war, he pounced without
notice on every English traveller in his dominions,
and kept them prisoners till the end of the war.
He had made up his mind to be Emperor of the
French, and before declaring this, he wanted to
alarm the old royalists ; so he sent a party to seize
the Duke d'Enghien (heir of the Princes of Conde),
who was living at Baden, and conduct him to Vin-
TUILEKIBS.
Napoleon L 425
cennes, where, at midnight, he was tried by a sham
court-martial, and at six in the morning brought
down to the court-yard, and shot beside his own
graYe.
After this, every one was afraid to utter a whis-
per against Bonaparte becoming emperor, and on the
second of December, 1804, he was crowned in Notre
Dame, with great splendor. The Pope was present,
but Bonaparte placed the crown on his own head —
a golden wreath of laurel leaves ; and he gave his
soldiers eagle standards, in memory of the old
Roman empire. He drcAv up an excellent code of
laws, which have been used ever since in France,
and are known by his name ; and his wonderful
talent did much to bring the shattered nation into
order. Still, England would not acknowledge his
unlawful power, and his hatred to her was very
great. He had an army ready to invade England,
but the English fleet never allowed him to cross the
Channel ; and his fleet was entirely destroyed by
Lord Nelson, at the great battle of Trafalgar, on
the 21st of October, 1805.
But Napoleon was winning another splendid vic-
tory at Ulm, over the Austrians ; and not long-
after, he beat the Prussians as entirely at Jena, and
had all Germany at his feet. lie was exceedingly
426 Young Folks' History of France,
liarsli and savage to the good and gentle Queen
Louisa, when she came with her husband to try to
make better terms for her country, thus sowing
seeds of bitter resentment which were to bear fruit
long after. The Russians advanced to the aid of
Germany, but the battles of Eylau and Friedland
made them also anxious for peace. There never,
indeed, was a much abler man than Napoleon ; but
he had no honor, honesty or generosity, and had
very little heart amid all his seeming greatness. He
made his family kings of conquered countries. His
brother Louis was King of Holland ; Jerome, of
Westphalia, and the eldest brother, Joseph, King
of Naples ; but in 1808 he contrived to cheat the
King of Spain of his crown, and keep him and his
son prisoners in France, while Joseph was sent to
reign in Spain, and General Murat, the husband of
liis sister Caroline, was made king of Naples. The
Portuguese royal family were obliged to flee away
to Brazil ; but the Spaniards and Portuguese would
not submit to the French yoke, and called the En-
glish to help them. So year after year the Duke of
Wellington was beating Napoleon's generals, and
wearing away his strength ; but he still went on
with his German wars, and in 1809, after two ter-
rible battles at Aspern and Wagram, entered
Napoleon L 427
Vienna itself. Again there was a peace ; and Napo-
leon, who was grieved to have no child to leave his
empire to, had tlie wickedness and cruelty to de-
cide on setting aside his good, loving Josephine,
and making the Emperor Francis of Austria give
him his young daughter, Marie Louise. In 1810^
the deed was done ; and it was said that from that
time all his good-fortune left him, though he had
one little son born to him, whom he called King of
Rome.
He set out with what he named the Grand Army,
to conquer Russia ; and after winning the battle of
Borodino, he entered Moscow ; but no sooner was
he there than the whole town was on fire, and it
burnt on, so that it was not possible to sta}^ there.
Winter was just coming on, the Russian army was
watching everywhere, and he could only retreat ;
and the unhappy Grand Army, struggling in the
snow, with nothing to eat, and beset by the enemy
everywhere, suffered the most frightful misery.
Napoleon left it in the midst, and hurried home ;
but no sooner had this blow been given him, than
all the Germans — the Prussians especially, to wliom
he had been so harsh — rose up and banded together
against him. France was worn out with the long
wars ; and though Napoleon still showed wonderful
428 Young Folks* History of France,
skill, especially at the battle of Leipzic, he was driven
back, inch by inch, as it were, across Germany,
and into France, by the Emperors of Austria and
Russia and King of Prussia ; for though each battle
of his was a victory, force of numbers was too
much for him. He went to the palace of Fon-
tainebleau, and tried to give uj) his crown to his
little son, but the Allies would not accept this ; and
at last, in the spring of 1814, he was forced to yield
entirely, and put himself into the hands of the
English, Prussian, Russian, and Austrian sover-
eigns. They decided on sending him to a little isle
called Elba, in the Mediterranean Sea, where he
was still to be treated as a prince. His deserted
wife Josephine loved him so much that she died of
grief for his fall ; but Marie Louise returned to her
father, and did nothing to help him.
CHAPTER XLII.
LOUIS XVIII.
1814-1824.
THE Allies had entered Paris — Russians,
Aiistrians, and Prussians — and the Duke of
Wellington, after winning the battle of Toulouse,
came up from the south to meet them there.
It was left to the French to decide what gov-
ernment they would have ; and those who loved
the old royalty took the lead, and invited back the
brothers of their king, Louis XVIIL and Charles,
Count: of Artois, whose eldest son, the Duke of
Angouleme, was married to Marie Therese, the
only survivor of the prisoners of the Temple.
Louis XYin. was a clever, cunning old man by
this time, and meant to do what he could to con-
tent the French and keep the peace ; but the
Count of Artois was stiff and haughty, and the
poor Duchess of Angouleme so grave and sad that
429
430 Young Folhs^ History of France.
she could not exert herself to please and amuse
the people. There was much discontent at the
changes that had to be made, and at the giving up
of all that ]N''apoleon had robbed other countries of
and given to France. He had carried off all the
best pictures and statues wherever he went, and
set them up in the Louvre ; and these were all
sent home to their right owners. The lands that
he had taken were to be restored ; and ministers
from all the Allies met at the Congress of Vienna
to settle how this should be done.
Full in the midst came the news, like a thunder-
bolt, that Napoleon had escaped from Elba, and
landed in France on the 27th of February, 1815.
No soldier who had served under him would fight
against him. The army threw away the white
flag, and shouted his name in ecstasy. Louis
XVIIL was obliged to flee to Belgium ; and in a
very short time Napoleon seemed as powerful as
ever. But the Allies were collecting their forces
against him ; and England and Prussia, as being
the nearest, first had their armies ready near
Brussels. Napoleon hoped to beat them before
Austria and Russia could come to their help, and
marched thither with all speed in the beginning of
June. Four days of battles with the Prussians
BATTI.E OF WATERLOO.
Louis XVIIL 433
left matters undecided ; but on the IStli of June,
1815, the Duke of Wellington, assisted by the
Prussians, gave the French an overwhelming
defeat at Waterloo, and marched direct on Paris ;
while Napoleon, after vainly seeking shelter, went
at last to Rochefort, and there finding it impossible
to escape to America, gave himself up to the cap-
tain of an English ship, the Bellerophon. He was
taken to Plymouth harbor, and remained on board
until his fate was decided by the Allied Sover-
eigns, who determined to send him where he
should not again escape to disturb all Europe ; and
he was therefore placed in the little lonely island
of St. Helena, in the midst of the Atlantic Ocean,
under the custody of an English governor, who
was to see him every day. He fretted and chafed
in his confinement ; and the governer (Sir Hudson
Lowe) was continually anxious, and therefore
seemed harsh and insulting to him in the fallen
pride that did not know how to be really great.
After six miserable years, Napoleon died, in 1821,
of cancer in the stomach, and was buried under
the willow trees of Longwood, in St. Plelena.
Of course his brothers and sisters had all been
put down from the thrones he had given them.
Murat tried to recover Naples, but was taken and
434 Young Folks History of France,
shot ; but the others submitted quietly, having
never much enjoyed their honors. Marie Louise
had a little Italian duchy given to her, and her
son was called the Duke of Reichstadt, and
brought up at the court of his grandfather, the
Emperor of Austria. He died in early youth,
and the person who cared the most for the great-
ness of the Bonaparte name was Louis Napoleon,
son to Louis, once King of Holland, and of
Hortense Beauharnais, the daughter of Josephine
by her first marriage.
Meantime, the English army had remained for
three years in France, to assist Louis XYIII. in
case of any fresh outbreak ; and Marshal Ney, the
foremost of the generals who had gone over to
Napoleon, was tried by court-martial and shot.
Almost everybody else was forgiven ; and Prince
Talleyrand, one of the cleverest and most cunning
men who ever lived, who had risen under Napo-
leon, worked on still with Louis XVIII.
It was the saying in France that in their exile
the Bourbons had learnt nothing and forgotten
nothing. This was not quite true of Louis XVIII. ,
who was clever in an indolent way, and resolved
to please the people enough to remain where he
was till his death, and really gave them a very
Louis XVIIL 435
good charter ; only he declared he gave it to them
by his free grace as their king, and they wanted
him to acknowledge that they had forced it from
royalty by the Revolution. But his brother Charles,
Count of Artois, was much more strongly and
openly devoted to the old ways that came before
the Revolution, and, as Louis had no children, his
accession was dreaded. His eldest son, the Duke
of Angouleme, had no children ; and his second
son, the Duke of Berri, who was married to a Nea-
politan princess, was the most amiable and hopeful
person in the family ; but on the 12th of February,
1820, he was stabbed by a wretch called Louvet, as
he was leaving the opera, and died in a few hours.
His infant son, Henry, Duke of Bordeaux, was the
only hope of the elder branch of the Bourbons.
France was worn out and weary of war, so that
little happened in this reign, except that the Duke
of Angouleme made an expedition to assist the
King of Spain in putting down an insurrection.
The French nobility had returned to all their titles ;
but many of them had lost all their property in
the Revolution, and hung about the court, much
needing offices and emplo3^ments ; while all the
generation who had grown up among the triumphs
of Napoleon, looked with contempt and dislike at
486 Young Folks^ History of France.
the endeavor to revive old habits and ways of
thinking.
Louis XVIII. was in failing health, but he kept
up much of the old state of the French court, and
was most careful never to keep any one waiting,
for he used to say, " Punctuality is the politeness
of kings." Even when very ill, he would never
give up any of the court ceremonies ; and when
urged to spare himself, said, " A king of France
ought to die standing ; but for some years he was
unable to walk, being dreadfully tormented by the
gout, and he was obliged to let his brother manage
his affairs. But he was shrewd enough to dread
the Count of Artois' desire to return to the old
times of the overgrown royal power ; and when he
found himself dying, lie put his hand on the head
of his little four years' old great-nephew, Henry,
and said to his brother, " Let Charles X. take care
of the crown for this child." He died in Septem-
ber, 1824.
CHAPTER XLIII.
CHARLES X.
1824—1830.
WHEN Charles X. had been the young Count
of Artois, before the Revolution, he had
been gay, lively, and thoughtless — a playfellow of
Marie Antoinette in those bright, giddy days when
she had caused so much, ill-will. After all his exile
and wanderings, and in his old age, he had become
very religious ; but not in a wise way, for he was
guided entirely by the Pope and a few clergy, who
wanted to bring things back to what they were be-
fore the Revolution. It was just the same with the
State. His ministers were trying to get back the
old power of the crown, and this made every one
discontented and jealous, though France had a
share in two victories in his time.
The first was made on behalf of the Greeks,
437
438 Young Folks' History of France,
who had long been trying to break away from the
rule of the Turks ; and at last the Prussian, English,
and French fleets joined and defeated the Turks
and Egyptians at the battle of Navarino ; after
which, Greece was able to become a kingdom under
Christian rule.
The other was to clear the Mediterranean Sea of
the Moorish robbers who had infested it for centu-
ries past. Ships came from the African ports, es-
pecially Algiers, and fell upon any merchant vessel
they could seize, taking the goods and carrying the
crew and passengers off into slavery. Even the
coasts of France, Spain, and Italy were not safe ;
and people were continually carried off, and set to
work for the Moors, until they were ransomed by
their friends in Europe. But in 1830 the English and
French fleets united to attack this nest of pirates,
and gained a grand victory, which put an end to
all further sea robberies in the Mediterranean.
But no one was pleased by the victory, for the
doings of the king and his ministers enraged the
public, and the newspapers found great fault with
them, and accused them of all sorts of impossible
things. On this, on the 26th of July, 1830, the
king put an edict putting an end to the liberty of
the press — that is, forbidding anything to appear
Chcrles X, 439
in any newspaper without being approved by tlie
government. Some other edicts were also made,
which offended the people so much that there was
a frightful disturbance at Paris. Every one begged
the king to change his mind, and withdraw the
edicts ; but he thought it was yielding that had
ruined his brother Louis XVI., and nothing would
persuade him to give way, till too late, when for
what are called the " three days of July" there had
been fighting throughout Paris, and his troops had
been broken and driven out by the National Guard.
Then he did consent ; but the people would not be
satisfied without dethroning him, and he was obliged
to leave France again, taking with him his son and
daughter-in-law (the last Dauphin and Dauphiness),
and his grandson, the little Henry. They lived
first in Scotland, and afterwards in Ital}^ and in
Germany ; and while all the old loyal French still
viewed Charles, and after his death, his grandson,
Henry Y., as they have always called him, as the
only true kings of France.
The ]\Iarquis de la Fayette, who had been one of
the first movers in the old Revolution, had lived to
assist in tliis, the Revolution of 1830, a far less
bloody and mischievous one. Some of the French
440 Young Folks' History of France,
wanted to have another republic, but most of them
wished to try a limited monarchy, like that of
England, with a king at the head, but witliout
power to do anything without the consent of the
subjects. They resolved to put at the head of their
new constitution the Duke of Orleans. He was
of the Bourbon royal blood, for he was descended
from Louis XIV.'s brother, the Duke of Orleans,
and from the wicked regent of the childhood of
Louis XV. After these two, there had been two
quiet dukes, not noted for much, but the fifth had
been vehement in the cause of the Bevolution.
He had given up his title of Duke of Orleans, and
called himself Citizen Philip Egalitd, or Equality,
and he liad even voted for the death of Louis XVL ,
but when, in the Reign of Terror, everyone who
had any high birth was put to death, he was guillo-
tined. His eldest son, Louis Philippe, had been
brought up by a very clever governess, Madam de
Genlis, who wrote the " Tales of the Castle," and
many other books for children; and she made a
great point of his learning many useful habits
which princes had thought quite beneath them.
He served in the French army till his father,
mother, and younger brothers were thrown into
Charles X. 441
prison, and he was obliged to earn his bread as a
teacher in a school. Afterwards he came to Eng-
land, where his brothers joined him ; but they both
fell into declines and died, one in England, and
the other at Malta, where Louis Philippe had taken
him for his health. Next he travelled in America,
and there, when he had a bad fall from his wagon
in a little lonely settlement, took out his own
lancet, and bled himself so dextrously, that the
people begged him to remain and be their doctor.
At the Restoration, he came back to France,
with his wife, Marie Amelie, the daughter of the
King of Naples, and his sister Adelaide, both very
good and clever women. They brought up their
large family at the Palais Royal, and were very
kind and sensible people, though all along there
were many who thought he was scheming to get
the people's favor away from King Charles X.
Whether this were true or not is not certain.
At any rate, when Charles fled, the leaders of the
nation all agreed to offer the crown to the Duke
of Orleans, but it was not to be as an old heredi-
tary monarch. He was not to be King of France,
but King of the French ; he was not to be Louis
XIX., but Louis Philippe I. ; and his eldest son
442 Young Folks' History of France.
was not to be Dauphin, but Duke of Orleans ; and
bis power was to be bounded by peers and depu-
ties, much as the power of the English king is
bounded by the peers and commons.
This was the Revolution of the " three days of
July," 1830.
CHAPTER XLIV,
LOUIS PHILIPPE.
1830-1848.
LOUIS PHILIPPE of Orleans began prosper-
ously. He was called the Citizen King, and
used the tricolored flag of the old Revolution
instead of the white one of the Bourbons, and the
cock of Gaul instead of the old blue shield with
gold fleurs-de-lys, to show that he reigned not as a
son of the old royal family, but by the choice of
the people. There was a chamber of peers and a
chamber of deputies ; and the constitution was a
limited monarchy.
Much was done to please the people, and much
to make them prosperous. Railways and steam-
boats came in, and manufactures began to flourish,
more especially the weaving of silk at Lyons ; and
though the French have never made articles as
strong and useful as the English do, they have
443
444 Young Folks' History of France.
much better taste, and all that is gay and elegant
is better finished there ; so that Paris grew more
and more to be the chief mart for dress and orna-
ment in the world.
Almost all the colonies the French had once
made had been lost in wars since the time of Louis
XIV. ; and Louis Philippe thought it would be
well to form new ones, and to get the navy into
good order again. So a settlement was made in
Algeria ; but it caused a long and fierce war with
the Arab chiefs, which lasted nearly throughout
the reign ; for no sooner had a grant of land been
made, and brought into good order, than the Arabs
would fall upon the farm in the night, and burn,
destroy, and plunder. Guards of soldiers had to
be kept in the forts all round the border ; and
there was much terrible fighting, for the Arabs
were as brave as the French themselves, and had a
most gallant chief, named Abd-el-Kader. At last,
however, after years of fighting, he was forced to
surrender himself a prisoner, and was taken to
France ; but this was not till quite at the end of
the reign of Louis Philippe, though I have told
you about it all at once.
The French also tried to make settlements in
the Pacific islands, especially New Caledonia and
Louis Pliilippe, 445
the island of Tahiti. They were not at all wel-
come in this last, for the native queen, Pomard,
had been taught to be a Christian by the English,
and did not wish for French protection or Roman
Catholic teaching. However, the French were
the strongest, and have taken the management
there, though the island still professes to be under
its own government.
Louis Philippe did his utmost to keep the Paris-
ians in good humor, knowing that he could only
reign by their favor ; and as the miseries of the
old wars were forgotten, and the French only
thought of the victories of the times of Napoleon,
praising him as the greatest of heroes, the king
gratified them by requesting the English to allow
him to bring home the corpse of the Emperor from
St. Helena, and bury it in the Church of the
Invalides, a great asylum for old soldiers at Paris.
It was fetched in a man-of-war by the king's sailor
son, the Prince de Joinville, and brought to Paris
in a triumphal car, which was followed through
the streets by Louis Philippe and his sons. A
chapel was built, and ornamented with splendid
marbles, for the burials of the Bonaparte family.
Napoleon's little son was dead, but his brother
446 Young Folks' History of France.
Louis had left a son, who was living in exile in
England or Germany.
Do what he would, Louis Philippe could not
prevent a great deal of discontent among the
Bonapartists on the one hand, and the Repub-
licans on the other. The richer the shopkeepers
and merchants grew, and the more show they made,
the bitterer was the hatred of the workmen, who
said that everybody ought to be equal not only in
rank but in property ; and these men used red
alone, instead of the tricolor, for their badge. A
horrible conspiracy was made by some wretches,
of whom the chief was named Fieschi, for destro}'-
ing the king, as he rode out, by what was called
the Infernal Machine, which was like a whole bat-
tery of guns fired off in a moment. The king was
not hurt, but fourteen people were killed, of whom
one was an old marshal of Napoleon's. The men
were traced and seized, and Fieschi was put to
death.
The queen, Marie Amelie of Naples, was one of
the best women who ever lived, and did all she
could to promote goodness and piety. So did the
king's prime minister M. Guizot, who was one of a
staunch old Huguenot family ; but the Republi-
can dislike to having religion taught in schools
Louis Philippe, 449
hindered the growth of good; and there were
a great number of unbelievers, though there were
good and holj men struggling with the evil.
There w*ere always many parties. There were the
Legitimists, who viewed first Charles X., and then
his grandson, Henry V., the Count of Chambord,
as the only true king, and would take no office
under Louis Philippe ; and there were the Bona-
partists and the Ked Republicans, as well as the
Moderate ones, who held by the king.
The king had five sons, of whom the eldest, the
Duke of Orleans, was much loved and looked up
to. He married the Princess Helen of jMecklen-
burg Schwerin, and they had had two little sons,
before he was unhappily killed by leaping out of
his open carriage while the horses were running
away.
It is a curious thing that the power of a French
sovereign always seems to melt awa}^ as soon as
he shov\^s any designs upon Spain. The king,
Ferdinand YIL, whom Napoleon kept so long in
prison, had left two little daughters ; and as they
grew up, Louis Philippe interfered about their
marriages in a way that caused much displeasure.
He could only gain the younger one for his son,
the Duke of Montpensier ; but he was thought to
4'50 Young Folds' History of France.
be grasping at the crown for him, and this made
everyone jealous. A little later, a nobleman, the
Duke de Praslin, horrified all Europe by murder-
ing his wife. He was, of course, condemned to
death, but he put an end to his own life in prison,
and the Red Republicans fancied that he must
have been allowed the means, in order that there
might not be a public execution of a nobleman ;
and this added to the discontent and hatred of
poor against rich that had been growing every
year.
At last, in February, 1848, after the council and
the chambers of deputies had decided against some
measures much desired by the people, there was a
rising of the mob throughout Paris. The troops
were drawn up, and the National Guard ; but
when the moment came for action, the National
Guard would not fire, but made common cause
with the people. The army would still have
fought, but Louis Philippe would not have blood
shed for him. He sent a message that he abdi-
cated in favor of his little grandson, the Count of
Paris, with his mother, the Duchess of Orleans, as
regent. Then he left the Tuileries privately, and
under the name of William Smith, safely reached
England.
Louis Plulijjpe. 451
The Duchess of Orleans bravely came forward
to the people with her two boys, but there was no
shout in her favor, only angry looks, and her
friends saw it was all in vain, and hurried her
away as fast as they could. All the family made
their way by different means, one by one, to Eng-
land, where the queen and her people received
them as kindly as warm hearts always welcome the
unfortunate. Claremont Palace was lent to them
as. a dwelling-place, and there Louis Philippe and
his good queen spent the remainder of their lives.
He died in the 3-ear 1849, and Amelie a few years
later.
CHAPTER XLV.
THE BEPUBLIC.
184S-1852.
AFTER Louis Philippe and his family had
fled from France, there was a time of con-
fusion. An assembly of deputies met from all
parts of France to arrange a fresh government ;
and a very clever poet and author, named Lamar-
tine, at first tried to bring about something like
order, but he v\ras not strong enough, and there
was a great deal of tumult and disorder.
In truth, the Red Republicans, who did not want
to see anyone richer than themselves, were very
much disappointed that, though noblemen and
gentlemen had no more rights than other people,
yet still rich men kept their money and estates;
and though all sorts of occupations were devised
at Paris, for which they were highly paid, in hopes
of keeping them quiet and contented, they only
452
The Republic. 453
became more fierce and violent. They had devised
a way of fortifjdng the streets, by seizing on all
the carts, carriages, and cabs they could lay hands
on, and fastening them together with ropes, so as
to form a line across the street. Then they pulled
Up the paving-stones, and built them up, banking
them up with earth, and thus making what they
called a barricade. And when the top and back
of this was thronged with men and boys armed
with muskets, it was almost impossible to dislodge
them.
In the end of June, 1848, there wqtq three
dreadful days of barricades. It was really a fight
of the Red Republicans against the Tricolored.
Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality were the watch-
words of them both ; but the Red Republicans
meant much more than the Tricolored by these
words, for they thought liberty was no order at
all, and equality was that no person should be
better off than the rest. The good Archbishop of
Paris, jMonseigneur Affre, going out on one of
these miserable days to try to make peace, was
shot through the back from behind a barricade,
and died in a few hours.
However, General Cavaignac, one of the brave
men wdio had been trained to war by the fighting
454 Young Folks' History of France.
in Algeria, so managed the soldiers and the
National Guard that they put down the Red
Republicans, and restored order, though not with-
out shedding much blood, and sending many into
exile.
Indeed, the two years 1847 and 1848 were un-
quiet all over Europe. Much that had been
settled at the Congress of Vienna, in 1814, after
Napoleon had been overthrown, had been done
more as if estates were being carved out than as if
what was good for the people was considered ; and
there had been distress and discontent ever since,
especially in Italy, w^here all the north w^as under
the Emperor of Austria, and his German officers
were very rough and disagreeable in the towns
where they were quartered.
The Italians rose, and tried to shake them off by
the help of the King of Sardinia ; and at the same
time there was a great rising against the Pope, Pius
IX., at Rome. The Popes had held Rome for
more than a thousand years, and there ruled the
Western Church ; but they had never been very
good princes to their Roman subjects, and things
had fallen into a sad state of confusion, which,
when first he was chosen, Pius IX. had tried to
improve ; but his people went on too fast for him,
The Rejmblic. 455
and at last rose up and so alarmed liim that lie fled
in the disguise of a servant behind an Austrian
carriage.
Now, the Roman Catholics think the Pope can-
not rule over the Church freel}^ unless he has Rome
quite of his own, and lives there as a prince,
instead of only as a Bishop in a country belonging
to some one else. And though there were so many
in France who had not much faith in anything, vet
there were a good many honest, religious people,
who were very anxious to have him back, and said
that it mattered more that he should govern the
Church than that the Romans should be well off.
So a French army was sent to restore him ; and
the Italians were grievously disappointed, for the
Austrians were putting them down in the north,
and they thought Republicans bound to helj) them.
But Rome was taken, and the Pope had his throne
again ; and a strong guard of French soldiers were
placed in Rome, for w^ithout such help he could no
lonofer have rei^^ned.
The French at home were in more j)arties than
ever. The Red Republicans still wanted to over-
throw everything ; the Moderate ones cared chiefly
to keep peace and order; the Bonapartists longed
to have another empire like Napoleon's ; the
456 Young Folks' History of France.
Orleanists wished to bring back the Count of
Paris, grandson of Louis PhiKppe ; and the Legit-
imists still held fast bv Henry Y., the son of the
murdered Duke of Berri, and the natural king by
birth. Never was there such a house divided
against itself ; but, in truth, the real fear was of
the Red Republicans. All the rest were ready to
be quiet, and submit to anything so long as these
could be kept down.
After much deliberating in the Assembl}-, it was
settled to have a republic, with a president as the
Americans have. Then Louis Napoleon Bona-
parte, the son of Napoleon's brother Louis, offered
himself as president, and Avas elected, all the quiet
people and all the Bonapartists joiniiig in the
choice. Most of the army were Bonapartists, for
the sake of the old victories of Napoleon ; and
when Algeria was quieted, and the}^ came home,
Louis Napoleon had a great power in his hands.
Soon he persuaded the people to change his title
from president to that of first consul, as his uncle
had once been called ; and then everyone began to
see what would follow, but most were glad to have
a strong hand over them, to give a little peace and
rest after all the changes.
And the next time there was any chance of a
The Bepiiblic. 457
disturbance at Paris, Louis Napoleon was before-
hand with the mob. He surrounded them with
soldiers, had cannon planted so as to command
every street, and fired upon the mob before it had
time to do any harm, then captured the ringlead-
ers, and either had them executed or sent into
banishment. Some violence and cruelty there cer-
tainly was, but the Parisians were taught whom
they must obey, and quiet people were grateful.
This master stroke is always called the coui? d'etat
or stroke of policy, for it settled affairs for the
time ; and after it Louis Napoleon did as he chose,
for no one durst resist him.
CHAPTER XLVI.
THE SECOND EMPIRE.
1852—1870.
N the beginning of the year 1852, the whole of
the French nation was called upon to decide by
Yote whether they would form an empire again, or
continue to be a republic. Every man rich or
poor, who was not a convict, had a vote ; and the
larger number decided for the empire, and for Louis
Napoleon Bonaparte as the emperor. He considered
himself as the successor of his uncle, and therefore
called himself Napoleon III., counting the little
child ill whose favor the great Bonaparte had ab-
dicated at Fontainebleau as the second Napoleon.
He married a Spanish lady of high rank, but not
royal, whose mother was Scottish. Her name was
Eugenie de Montijo, and she was one of the most
lovely women of her time. She was pious and
kind-hearted, and al\^ays ready to do anything
458
The Second Umpire. 459
good ; but it was thought that the court would be
more popuhir, and trade j)i'Osper more, if an exam-
ple was set of great splendor and magnificence.
So the ladies were encouraged to dress in a stjle
of extravagance and brilliancy, with perpetual
changes of fashion ; and tliis, as the Parisian dresses
are always the models of those of other countries,
has led to much folly in all grades of society every-
where. One son Avas born of this marriage, who
was called the Prince Imperial.
The emperor ruled with a strong hand, but he
got everything into order again, and he made Paris
more beautiful than ever, throwing down old nar-
row streets, a.nd building grand new ones, which,
for the most part, had asphalt pavement, so that
there might be no paving-stones to take up and
make into barricades. He took away a good
many of the places to which old historical remem-
brances were attached ; and it has never seemed
plain whether he did so for the sake of sweeping
away the old remembrances, or only because they
stood in the way of his plans.
The name the emperor wished to be called by
was the Napoleon of Peace, as his uncle had been
the Napoleon of War ; but it was not always pos-
sible to keep the peace. In the year 1852, just
460 Young Folks' History af France.
after he had been crowned, the Russian emperor
began to threaten to conquer Turkey, and there-
upon the French joined with the English to protect
the Sultan. The French and English armies, both
together, landed in Turkey, and then made an ex-
pedition to the Crimea, where the Russians had
built a very strong fortified city named Sebastopol,
whence to attack the Turks. Marshal Bugeaud
was the French general, and, with Lord Raglan,
commanded in the great battle fought on the banks
of the Alma, and then laid siege to Sebastopol,
•where again the Russians sallied out, in the night
of the 4th of November, 1854, and attacked the
camp at Inkerman. All the winter and spring the
siege lasted, the two armies having much bitter
cold to fear as they watched in the trenches ; but
in the summer it was possible to assault the cit}^
an^ wdiile the English attacked the Redan, the
French attacked the Malakoff Tower, and after
much hard fighting this was taken. Then peace
was made, on condition that all the fortifications of
Sebastopol should be destroyed, and no fleet or
ami}'' kept there for the future.
Having thus been allies in war, England and
France became much greater friends, and Queen
Victoria and the emperor made visits to one
The Second Empire. 461
another ; and the trade of the two nations was so
mixed np togetlier as to make it much less easy to
go to war, for the emperor had a love and affection
for England, which had been a home to him in his
days of exile.
The Italians were more uneasy and miserable
than ever under the rule of the Austrians, and
begged Victor Emmanuel, King of Sardinia, to
help them, and become an Italian king over them.
Loais Napoleon gave them his help, and went in
person to Lombardy, where the French and Ital-
ians defeated the Austrians at Magenta and Sol-
ferino ; after which there was again a peace, and
Victor Emmanuel was owmed as King of Italy, on
condition that, in return for the help he had
received, he should give to France the little prov-
ince of Nice, which had always been part of the
dukedom of Savoy, the old inheritance of his fore-
fathers long before they were kings, but v.diich
seemed as if it ought to be a part of France. The
Romans hoped that they, too, should have shaken
off the Papal government ; but the guard of
French soldiers was still maintained at Rome.
Another undertaking of the emperor was to
bring Mexico into order. This country had been
settled by Spaniards, and belonged to Spain until
462 Young Folks'' History of France.
it revolted ; and for many years there had been
constant revolutions, and very little law, so that it
was full of outlaws and robbers. Some of the
better disposed thought that they might do better
if they set up a monarchy, and the French prom-
ised to help them. The Archduke Maximilian,
brother of the Emperor of Austria, was chosen,
and went out, with his 3'oung wife Charlotte,
daughter of the King of Belgium, and guarded by
a French army. But the Mexicans were much
more fierce and treacherous than had been ex-
pected ; and the French troops found that sta3dng
there only made them more bitter, and it was
costly to keep them there. So they were brought
home ; and no sooner had they left Mexico, than
the Mexicans rose up, made their emperor pris-
oner, and shot him, while his poor wife lost her
senses from grief. They were a good and noble
pair — true-hearted, and anxious to do right ; and
theirs is one of the saddest stories of our time.
The Emperor of the French had ruled prosper-
ously for a long time ; but the burning hatred of
the Red Republicans was not quenched. His best
advisers, too, were growing old and dying, and his
own health and spirit were failing ; but he was
trying to teach the peojjle to rule themselves in
The Second Empire. 463
some degree, instead of expecting liim to keep
order with his power from iiboye. He was anxious
to be sure of his son reigning after him, and he
put it to the vote all over France whether the
empire should be hereditary.
The vote was in his favor, and he seemed quite
secure. But at this time the Prussians had been
gaining great successes both against Denmark and
Austria, and the French were very jealous of
them, and expected a fight for some of the prov-
inces that lie along the Rhine. Just then, too, the
Spaniards had risen, and driven awa}' Queen
Isabella, who had not ruled well ; and they elected
a cousin of the King of Prussia to be their king.
He never accepted the Spanish crown, but the
bare notion made the French furious, and there
was a great cry from the whole nation that the
pride of the Prussians must be put down. The
emperort saw his popularity was failing him, and
that his only chance was to please the people by
going to war. Nobody knew that the army had
been badly managed, and that it was quite changed
from what it was when it fought in Algiers and
the Crimea. Indeed, the French never think that
anything but victory can happen to them, so the
army went off in high spirits to meet the Prus-
464 Young Folks History of France.
sians on the Rhine - — singing, shouting, drinking ;
cincl the emperor took his young son with him,
and tried to seem as hopeful as they did ; but all
who saw him near saw that he was both ill and
sad. This was in the summer of the year 1870«
CHAPTER XLVII.
THE SIEGE OF PAKIS,
1870—1871.
EVERYONE knew that whatever might be
said to be the quarrel between France and
Prussia, the truth was that the two fi(jhtino- nations
were jealous of one another, and wanted to meas-
ure their strength together. The Prussians had
never forgotten the elder Napoleon's cruelty to
their queen, and the harshness with which the
whole nation had been treated ; and all the Ger-
mans distrusted Napoleon III., and thought he had
plans for spreading the French empire into the
German provinces beyond the Rhine. All the
Germans, therefore, felt as if they were defending
their fatherland, and came to the arni}^ in a yevy
different temper from the boastful one of the
French.
It was in the provinces of the Rhine that the
465
4:66 Young JFolks' History of France.
battle was to be fought out. In the first fight, at
Werth, the French were successful, and a great
deal was made of the victory. The Prince Impe-
rial was made to fire the first cannon, and all the
newspapers profanely called it his baptism of fire.
Indeed, one of the worst signs was that nobody
was telling truth. The emperor had been deceived
as to the strength and order of his arm}'^ ; and the
whole French nation were entirely deceived as to
the state of things with the army, and thought
they were beating the Prussians, and should soon
be at Berlin. Instead of this, all round the city of
Sedan there was a most frightful battle, Avhich
lasted day after day, and in which the French
were entirely beaten, and so surrounded and cut
off from retreat by the German forces, that the
emperor was obliged to surrender himself a pris-
oner to the King of Prussia.
He had before sent his son to England, as soon as
he saw how things were going. The Empress
Eugenie had been left as regent at Paris ; but as
soon as the dreadful news came, all the Parisians
rose up, and declared that the emperor was deposed
and that they would have a republic again. All
that her best friends could do for her was to help
her to pass out of the Tuileries in a plain black
The Siege of Paris. 467
dress, get into a fl}^, and be driven to the station,
whence she safely reached England.
Marshal Macmahon and a large portion of the
army who were in Sedan were made prisoners, and
sent off to Germany. Still there was a general
belief that help must come — that an army would
come home from Algeria, or be put together from
the garrisons — or that the whole nation would
rise up and drive out the enemy. So the cities of
Strasburg, Phalsburg, and Nancy shut their gates,
and bravely stood a siege from the Germans ; and
when the Parisians found that the main bodj- of
the enemy was advancing, they likewise prepared
for a seige, under their commandant, General
Trochu, a good man, but not enterprising. They
were in a strange delirium of ungrateful joy at
being rid of the empire ; they went about knock-
ing down the carved eagles and effacing the great
crowned N's, and declaring that now the}^ should
prosper, as if the enem}^ were not actually on their
own ground.
Almost every available man was enrolled in the
National Guard or the Garde Mobile; but the
Prussians put a stop to any warfare of the peas-
antry, for at a little village called' Bazeille, where
some shots were fired on them, they burnt and
468 Young Folks' History of France,
'destroyed every building, and killed all who fell
into their hands. They gave out that though
reo-ular soldiers would be treated as prisoners of
war, and those who did not fight would not be
hurt, there was to be no mercy for places where
Germans were fired upon.
The Prussians meant to be just, but their jus-
tice was of a hard kind ; and though they hardly
ever did violence to anyone's person, they had less
scruple about plundering than they ough-t to have
had. Indeed, they had bitterly hated the French
ever since the elder Napoleon had so tyrannously
misused Prussia, and broken the heart of Queen
Louisa, the mother of the King William who was
now leading his forces to Paris ; and much that
they called retribution, lookers-on called revenge.
The king placed his headquarters in the grand
old palace of Versailles, and thence besieged Paris,
cutting off all supplies and all communication from
outside. No one could come in or out, save
througli the German camp, except in a balloon ;
and one of the Republican leaders, M. Gambetta,
actually came out in a balloon, to try to raise the
spirit of the rest of France to come to the relief of
■ the capital. Letters came and went, too, by car-
rier pigeons ; and tiny letters on thin paper, and
The Seige of Parish 471
newspapers in print so small tliat they could only
be read with a magnifying glass, were prepared for
this pigeon post. Meantime, the people ate up all
their stores ; and after finishing the mutton and
beef, all the horses were seized, and the cats and
doQfs were killed : the flour was diluted with saw-
dust ; and the starvation became all the more
wretched as the winter came on ; and there was as
sad a want of fuel as of food. Meanwhile, the
German shells Avere constantly flying in, destroy-
ing houses, and killing all whom their splinters
struck.
It was as bad at Strasburg, while these Paris-
ians were consoling themselves by offering gar-
lands to the statue of that city in the Place de la
Concorde ; but Strasburg, Metz, and Phalsburg all
were taken, and all the hopes of help from without
faded away. The supposed army in the south
never appeared at all, and one in the west, which
at first had some success, was soon defeated. The
Prussian army occupied more and more ground ;
and though the Parisian troops tried to sally out
and attack the German camp, this turned out to
be all in vain. For the Parisians, both in the
National Guard and Garde jMobile, had no notion
of obeying orders or observing discipline, and
472 Young Folks' History of France.
without these nobody can fight ; while even as to
bravery, they showed themselves sadly unlike their
loud boasts of themselves. Nobody did show any
steady courage but the few real soldiers, the gentle-
men, and the Bretons ; and their bravery ended in
their being killed when no one supported them.
It was all the worse, because there was bitter dis-
trust between the Red Republicans and the Mod-
erate party, and each expected to be betrayed by
the other. The only pleasant thing to think of in
the whole war was the care taken by a society,
gathered from all nations — chiefly Swiss, German,
and English — for sending nurses to the wounded
and help to the ruined. They were known by the
Red Cross, and wherever this was seen they were
respected.
One difficulty was — Who or what was the
government which might make peace with the
Prussians ? but after half-a-year of siege, M. Thiers
and General Trochu, and others of the Moderate
party, made terms. Paris was, in fact, surren-
dered ; but the King of Prussia promised not to
grieve the French by marching in at the head of
his army, but to be content with quietly entering
himself. The two provinces of Lorraine and
Alsace, which used to be German, were to be
The Siege of Paris. 473
given up to him ; Prussian troops were to be left
for a 3'ear in garrison in France ; and a fine was to
be paid. At the same time, quantities of f(jod and
firing were sent in for tlie famished Parisians, the
prisoners were released, and among them the
emperor, who went to England.
CHAPTER XLVIII. .
THE COMMUNISTS.
1871.
THE terms of the treaty were no sooner known
than all the ill-will and distrust of the Red
Republicans openly broke out. They declared
that they were betra}- ed ; that their generals and
the National Guards would not fight, and had sold
them to the enemy ; and that the}^ would not give
up their arms, or be bound by the treaty. They
drew together on a height with their cannon, and
closed the gates, and barricaded the streets again.
The Government withdrew to Versailles, to wait
for the arrival of all the troops who had been in
captivity ; and these Red Republicans did what
they chose. One horrible deed was, shooting, and
that with many repeated wounds, two generals who
had tried to maintain discipline in the first siege,
and had thus offended them.
474
The Communists. _ 475
A sort of government was set up, calling itself
the Commune — an old word for a town council
governing itself — and thus the Red Republicans
were known as the Communists. Thej were either
newspaper writers, or else workmen and mechan-
ics ; and there was one noble among them, quite as
desperate as the rest. All the former pride in the
first Bonaparte had turned into a ferocious hatred
to the very name ; so that even the great column
in the Place Vendome, raised in honor of his vic-
tories, Avas thrown down ; and the Communists
were as furious against law, order, property, and
religion as ever their grandfathers in the Reign of
Terror had been. They turned the clergy out of
the churches, and the Sisters of Charity out of the
hospitals, and uttered the maddest and most hor-
rible blasphemies against all that Avas good or great.
The women were equally violent, or even more so,
with the men — they sang songs of liberty, and
carried weapons, uttering fearful threats. Some of
the leaders had been captured, and kept at Ver-
sailles ; whereupon they seized on the archbishop,
Monseigneur Darboy, and five more clergy — good
and holy men, who had spent their whole lives in
the endeavor to teach and help them, and who, all
through the siege had toiled to lessen the suf-
476 Young Folks History of France.
ferings of the poor. They were thrown into
prison ; and when the Commune found that tlieir
own members were not released, and that Marshal
Macmahon and the army were closely besieging
Paris, all these good priests were brought to the
prison of La Roquette, and there shot, and hastily
buried. The good archbishop died with his hand
uplifted, as if in the act of blessing his mur-
derers. This was on the 24th of May, 1871.
All France was against the madmen who had
possession of their much-loved Paris ; but the
Communists held out desperately, and forced many
quiet citizens to fight, b}^ making their carrying
arms the only condition of obtaining food, which
of course, they could not earn by honest labor as
of old. At last, however, the soldiers from Ver-
sailles began to force their way in, and then, in
their final madness, the Red Republicans set fire to
the city. The Hotel de Ville was soon blazing,
and so was the Tuileries. It was said that inflam-
mable materials had been placed in them for this
purpose, and that women went about throwing
petroleum in at the windows of houses to set them
on fire.
The Versailles government, their troops, and
indeed all who looked on, were in a frenzy of rage
The Communists* 477
and grief at seeing their beantiful city, the pride
and darling of every Frenchman's heart, thus
destroyed before their eyes. And as the soldiers
slowly fought their way in, with cannon pointed
down the streets, and mowing all before them,
they made a most fearful slaughter of men and
women alike — and, it may be feared, the innocent
with the guilty, Indeed, the very cry of " une
petroleuse " was enough to cause a woman to be
hunted down, and shot without further trial.
There was a last stand . made by the Communists
in the great cemetery of Pere la Chaise, where
most of them died the death of wolves ; and large
herds of the captured were marched off towards
Versailles — many to be shot at once, others im-
prisoned, and after trial sent off to prison, and
exiled to Cayenne or New Caledonia.
Thus the Red Republic was extinguished in fire
and blood, and order was restored. The citv was
found to be less injured by the fires than had been
feared when they were seen raging ; and for the
time M. Thiers ruled as a sort of president, and
set matters as right as was possible in the torn and
bleeding country. Meantime, the emperor. Napo-
leon III., died in his exile in England ; and the
nation began to consider Avhat should be the gov-
478 Young Folks' History of France.
ernment for tlie future. The old parties still
existed — the Legitimists, still \ojdl to Henr}^,
Count of Chambord ; the Orleanists, wishing for a
son or grandson of Louis Philippe ; the Bonapart-
ists, loving the memory of Napoleon III., and hop-
ing to restore his son ; the Moderate Kepublicans,
chiefly seeking rest and order, and now revenge
upon Germany and the remnant of the Com-
munists.
Henr}^, Count of Chambord, having no children,
so that the Count of Paris, eldest grandson of
Louis Philippe, was his rigiit heir, there was a plan
that the Legitimist and Orleans parties should join,
and a proposal was made to restore the Count of
Chambord as such a king as Louis Philippe was,
and that the Count of Paris should reign after him.
But the Count of Chambord's answer w^as that
he would come to his forefathers' throne if he were
invited, but only to reign as they did, by the right
given to his family by God, not as the chosen of
the people. He would be the Most Christian king
- — the Kmg of France, not of the French — with
the white flag of the Bourbons, not the tricolor —
and the Eldest Son of the Church obedient to the
Pope.
Nobody except the old Legitimists was in a
The Communists. 479
mood to accept this answer, and so, when the
choice of a government was put to the vote of the
nation, it was decided to have a republic, with a
president, instead of a monarchy ; and Marshal
Macmahon was soon after elected as president.
Questions for Examination,
Chapter I. — 1. Who were the Kelts ? 2. Into what were
they divided ? 3. What does Pen mean in Keltic ? 4. What
rivers did the Kelts name ? 5. What do Rhine and Rhone
mean ? 6. What does Seine mean ? 7. What does Garonne
mean? 8. What were the two divisions of Kelts? 9. How
did the Kelts travel? 10. IIow did they dress? 11. Wlio
were the Galatians ? 12. Who sacked Rome ? 13. What was
Gallia Cis-Alpina ? 14. What was Gallia Trans-Alpina? 15.
W^hat metals are found in Gaul? 16. Who found them out?
17. Who followed the Phoenicians ? 18. What cities did the
Greeks huild ? 19. Whom did. the Greeks call to help them ?
20. What were the first two Roman towns ? 21. Who was the
messenger to the Romans ? 22. Which was the hravest clan in
Gaul?
Chapter II,- -1. What did the Romans call their settle-
ment ? 2. What was a colony ? 3. How was a colony hegun ?
4. How long were the Romans in gaining Gaul ? 5. Who
broke into Gaul ? 6. Who defeated the Cimbri and Teutons ?
7. Who conquered Gaul ? and in Avhat year ?. 8. What tribe
rose against him ? 9. Who was the great chief of the Arverni ?
10. Where did Yercingetorix fortify himself ? 11. How was
481
482 Questions for Examination.
he shut in ? 12. How did Verciiigetorix surrender ? 13.
What was his end ? 14. What cities did the Eomans huild in
Gaul ? 15. Who governed Kome ? 16. Wlio made a rising
against Eome ? 17. Wliat was tlie name of liis brave wife ?
Chapter III. — 1. Who was tlie first Bishop of Aries ? 2.
Who first persecuted the Gallic Christians ? 3. Who was their
brave girl-martyr ? 4. Where were the Christians massacred ?
5. What were the three Keltic Provinces ? 6. How was Con-
stantine converted ? 7. Who were the enemies of the Gauls ?
8, Who defended Gaul from them ? 9. Who set up an empire
there ? 10. Who finished the conversion of Gaul ? 11. How
long had the Komans held Gaul ?
Chapter IV. — 1. What kind of people were the Teutons ?
2. Who were their gods ? 3. What were their chief tribes ?
4. Which tribes came to Gaul ? 5. What w^ere the two tribes
of Franks ? 6. What was their kingly family called ? 7. In
what year was Attila's invasion? 8. Where w^as Attila de-
feated ? 0. Why was Gaul deserted by the Komans ? 10.
What good did Genoveva do at Paris ? 11. Who was Clovis ?
12. What was Clovis' promise ? 13. Where was he baptized ?
14. What was his chief home in Gaul ? 15. What church did
he build ? 16. What was the King of France always called ?
17. When did Clovis die ? IS. What part of Gaul belonged to
the Franks ? 19. What part was still Roman ? 20. What
part was still Keltic ? 21. How many sons had Clovis ? 22.
What cruel thing did two of them do ? 23. Which child w^as
saved ?
Chapter V.— 1. Who were the Meerwings ? 2. Who were
the two wicked queens ? 3. What were the two kingdoms of
Questions for Examination. 483
the Franks? 4. When did rrede2;ond die ? 5. What good did
Brynhild do ? 6. But whom did she reject ? 7. What was her
end? 8. In wliat year? 9. What work was done in Dago-
bert's time? 10. How many more Meerwings reigned after
him ? 11. What are they called ? 12. Who governed for
them ? 13. Which kingdom came to be greatest ? 14. Who
^yas Mavoi* of the Palace in Neustria ?
Chapter YI. — 1. Who was the next Mayor of the Palace ?
2. What was Pepin's son called? 3. What was Charles Mar-
tel's great battle? 4. In what year? 5. With whom did he
fight ? 6. Who was the false prophet of the Arabs ? 7. What
countries had they conquered ? 8. When did he die ? 9.
Who was the first of these Mayors to become a king ? 10. In
what year ? 11. What was their dynasty called ? 12. Who
came to ask Pepin's help? 13. Against whom? 14. What
reward did Pope Stephen give Pepin ? 15. What did Pepin
give Pope Stephen ? 16, Wlien did Pepin the Short die ?
Chapter VII. — 1. When did Carl the Great begin to reign ?
2. Who reigned with him at first ? 3. What were his great
conquests ? 4. Who was the Saxon chief ? 5. Why did
Charlemagne fight with the Lombards? G. Who was king
of the Lombards ? 7. Who held Spain ? 8. What disaster did
Carl meet with ? 9. How many sons liad Charlemagne ? 10.
What were they kings of ? 11. Where did Carl generally live ?
12. What did he do to promote learning? J 3. What hymn did
he write ? 14. What dignity was given him ? 15. In what
year did his Empire begin ? 16. What was his capital ? 17.
What great Bishoprics did he set up ? 18. When did he die ?
484 Questions for Uxammationc
Chapter VIII.— 1. Of what was the Empire made up ? 2.
Who was always head of it ? 3. Who was Emperor after
Charlemagne ? 4. Why were there wars in Louis's time ? 5.
When did Louis I. die ? 6. Which son was Emperor ? 7.
Which . reigned in France? 8. What province is called after
Lothar ? 9. What was the story of John Scot ? 10. What
were the troubles of Charles the Bald ? 11. Whence did the
Northmen come ? 12. When did Charles the Bald die ? 13.
Who was Charles the Fat? 14. Who beseiged Paris? 15.
When was Charles the Fat deposed? 16. How was the
Empire broken up ?
Chapter IX. — 1. Who warred for power ? 2. Who held
with Charles the Simple ? 3. Who held with Arnulf ? 4.
When did Carlings cease to reign in Germany ? 5. Who were
the Counts of Paris ? 6. Who gained Normandy ? 7. When
was Rolf baptized ? 8. What was homage ? 9. What was the
story of Eolf's homage? 10. What became of Charles the
Simple? 11. When? 12. Who reigned after him? 13.
Where was his son bred up ? 14. Who brought back Louis
lY.? 15. Whom did Louis IV. make prisoner ? 16. How was
Richard saved ? 17. Who took his part ? IS. When did Louis
IV. die ? 19. How long did Lothar reign ? 20. Who was the
last of the Carlings ? 21. What family reigned next ? 22.
When did Hugh Capet begin to reign ?
Chapter X. — 1. What power had the King of France ? 2.
What were the two languages of North and South called ? 3.
What was talked in Brittany ? 4. Who were the great nobles
in the South ? 5. To whom did Provence belong ? 6. What
•..■as the feudal system ? 7. IIow did the barons treat their
Questions for Examination, 485
vassals ? 8. How were people knighted ? 9. How were the
Popes going on ? 10. Who reformed the papacy ? 11. When
did Hugh Capet die ?
Chapter XI.— 1. What was expected in the year 1000 ? 2.
What was the consequence ? 3. What good came out of this ?
4. What was the Truce of God ? 5. What kind of man was
Khig Robert ? 6. What were his troubles ? 7. When did
Robert die ? 8. Who reformed the elections of the Popes ? 9.
Who choose the Pope? 10. What was a pilgrimage? 11.
When did Henry I. die ? 12. What was a Crusade ? 13. Who
preached the first Crusade ? 14. "Where was it preached ? 15.
Who led the Crusaders ? 16. What were the religious orders
of knighthood ? 17. When did Philip I. die ?
Chapter XII. — 1. How did the cities take care of them-
selves ? 2. What were the free cities called ? 3. Whose part
did Louis YI. take against Henry I.? 4. What were the
battles then fought ? 5. Who was Suger ? 6. Who was
Abailard? 7. Who was St. Bernard? 8. Of what was he
abbot ? 9. What is he called ? 10. Whom did the sou of
Louis marry ? 11. When did Louis YI. die ?
Chapter XIII. — 1. Who preached the second Crusade ? 2.
Where was it preached ? 3 Who went upon it ? 4. What
misfortune happened on the way ? 5. How did the queen
behave ? 6. How was the king separated from her ? 7.
Whom did she marry ? 8. What parts of France were in the
hands of Henry II. of England ? 0. What was the meeting-
place of the kings? 10. Whom did Louis shelter? 11. Why
did Becket flee from England ? 12. Whom did Louis help
486 Questions for Examination.
against Henry II.? 13. Who were the troubadours? 14.
What is the Salic law ? 15. What son was born to Louis ? 16.
What clanger did Philip fall into ? IT. How did Louis show
his joy ? 18. In what year did Louis die ?
Chapter XIV. — 1. Why did Philip II. cut down the elm of
Gisors? 2. YvHiat kind of person was Philip II.? 3. What is
he called ? 4. Why was the third Crusade begun ? 5. Who went
upon it? 6. What was the end of Henry II? 7. How did
Philip travel to the Holy Land ? 8. What city was taken ? 9.
Why did Phihp return ? 10. What did he do in Kichard's
absence ? 11. What kept Kichard away so long ? 12. Who
reigned after Eichard? 13. Whose part did Philip take
against John ? 14. How Avas peace made ? 15. What sin had
Philip committed ? 16. How did the Pope punish him ? 17.
What is an interdict ? 18. Whom was Philip forced to take
back ? 19. How did Philip gain Normandy ? 20. What was
John's quarrel with the Pope ? 21. Who was the Pope who
laid both France and England under interdicts ? 22. Whom
did Innocent III. invite to conquer England ? 23. What
Emperor did Philip defeat? 24. At what battle? 25. Why
was Louis the Lion invited to England ? 26. What city was
put into his hands.? 27. Why did he not stay there? 28.
What was the great success of Philip Augustus ? 29. When
did he die? 30. Which English kings were his contempo-
raries ?
Chapter XV.— 1. When did Louis VIII. come to the
throne? 2. With whom was his chief war? 3. Where did
the Albigenses live? 4. What was their false doctrine? 5.
Who were the two men who came to Innocent HI ? 6. What
was the work of the Franciscans ? 7. What was the work of
Questions for Examination. 487
the Dominicans ? 8. Wlio suijported tlie Albigenses ? 9.
Wliom did Innocent send against them? 10. Wliat -n^as the
great battle with them? 11. Who was killed there? 12. How
did tlie Crusaders treat their prisoners ? 13. Where was
Simon de Montfort killed ? 14. When did Louis the Lion die ?
15. Who governed for his son ? 16, How was peace made ?
17. Whom did tlie four Provencal ladies marry ? 18. What was
the Inquisition for ?
Chaptek XYL— 1. When had Louis IX. come to the throne?
2. What was his character? 3. Why would he not take Guy-
enne ? 4. Why would he not give up Normandy ? 5. What
made him go on a Crusade ? 0. Where did he attack the Mo-
hammedans ? 7. What city did he take ? 8. Where was he
made prisoners? 9. What caused his disasters? 10. WIio
were the Memlooks ? 11. How did Louis recover his liberty?
12, Where did he sit to do justice ? 13. Wb at county belonged
to Louis's brother Charles ? 14. What kingdom did the Pope
give him? 15. How many Crusades did Louis undertake? 16.
Where did he go on the second journey ? 17. What was the
cause of his death ? IS. When did he die ?
Chapter XTII. — 1. When did Philip HI, begin to reign?
2. What were the Sicilian Vespers? 3. Who was made King
of Sicily? 4, Who was sent to attack him in Aragon? 5.
When did Philip HI. die? 6. What sort of jjerson was
Philip lY.? 7. What province did he take from Edward I.?
8. How was peace made? 9. With whom was Philip's great
quarrel? 10. What caused it? 11. Where was the Pope
attacked ? 12. What was the end of Boniface YIII.? 13.
What promise did the king obtain from Clement Y.? 14.
488 Questions for Examination,
Where did Clement Y. come to live ? 15. What was the harm
of the move to Avignon ? 16. What Order was destroyed hy
Philip lY.? 17. Who was the Grand Master? 18. When did
Philip the Fair die ?
Chapter XYIII. — 1. How many sons did Philip the Fair
leave ? 2. When did Louis X. begin to reign ? 3. When did
Philip Y. begin to reign ? 4. When did Charles TV. begin to
reign ? 5. When did he die ? 6. Who reigned after him ? 7.
What relation was Philip YI. to him ? 8. Why did none of the
daughters reign ? 9. But who laid claim to France .'' 10. What
was Edward III.'s claim? 11. How was he stirred up? 12.
Where did he go first? 13. "Wliere did he defeat the French
ships ? 14. Who were fighting for Brittany ? 15. Who gained
it? 16. Who were the great Breton knights ? 17. What made
the English armies better than The French ? 18. Where did
Edward defeat Philip ? 19. What misfortune led to a peace ?
20. What was the king's eldest grandson called? 21. Why was
he called Dauphin ? 22. Who left him Yienne ? 23. When did
Philip YI. die ?
Chapter XIX.— 1. What had hurt the health of the Dau-
phin ? 2. Who was Charles the bad ? 3. How was he of-
fended ? 4. Who invaded France ? 5. Where was John made
prisoner? 6. Where did the Black Prince rule? 7. What
rufiians roamed in France ? 8. What were the troubles in
Paris? 9. What was the rising of the peasants called? 10.
What resolution had the Dauphin taken ? 11. How then did
he cause the English to retreat ? 12. What were the condi-
tions of peace ? 13. How did John fulfil them ? 14. When did
John die ? 15. Who were his sons ?
Questions for Examination, 489
Chaptek XX. — 1. How did Charles Y. manage his -war ? 2.
Who T^'as his Constable ? 3. AYhat was the office of the Con-
stable of France ? 4. When was Charles the Bad defeated ?
5. What question was settled at the battle of Auray ? 6. Who
were the Free Companions ? 7. How did the king try to get
rid of them ? 8. Who took up the cause of Peter the Cruel ?
9. Where did the Black Prince defeat Du Guesclin ? 10.
Where was Peter the Cruel killed ? 11. Why did the Gascons
appeal to Charles ? 12. How did he carry on the war ? 13.
What town was sacked by the Black Prince ? 14. What was
left to England in France '? 15. Where did Du Guesclin die? 16.
Who was the next Constable ? Tl. Wlien did Charles Y. die ?
Chaptek XXI. — 1. How old was Charles YI. when he
came to the throne ? 2. Who quarrelled about him ? 3. What
great quarrel was there in the Church ? 4. Where did these
two Popes live ? 5. Where did the King of France hold by ?
6. How did the Count of Flanders get into trouble? 7. What
were the cities of Flanders famous for ? 8. How was the
Count hidden ? 9. Where were the Flemings defeated ? 10.
Who tried to murder Clisson ? 11. What befel the king on
his way ? 12. What brought on a second attack of his in-
sanity ? 13. What Crusade was undertaken by the French ?
Chaptek XXK. — 1. What was the state of Charles YI. ? 2.
Y'hat was the state of France ? 3. Who were the chief
princes ? 4. With which did Paris take part ? 5. What crime
was committed ? G. What were the partizans of Orleans called?
7. How were the Armagnacs and Burgundians distinguished?
8. How many princes were Dauphins in turn ? 9. ^Vhat battle
was lost by Dauphin Louis ? 10. Who had the chief power in
490 Questions for Examination.
tlie Fi'encli councils ? 11. What agreement was made with
Henry V. ? 12. Wliat murder was committed in the name of
Dauphin Charles ? 13. What was the effect of the murder of
John the Fearless ? 14. ITow much of France was held by
Henry V.? 15. Who came to help the Dauphin? IG. What
battle was won by the Scots allies ? 17- AVhat sieges were
undertaken by Henry Y.? IS. When did Charles YI. die ?
Chapter XXIII. — 1. Who was crowned King of France on
Charles Yl.'s death? 2. What was Charles YII. called at
first ? 3. Vv'ho stiiTed up France to his aid ? 4. What was
the first exploit of Joan of Arc ? 5. What was her great
object ? G. How was she misused ? 7. Where was she put to
death ? 8. Who was the great Constable of France ? .9. What
was the end of the hundred years' war ? 10. What was the
end of the Great Schism ? 11. How had the hundred years'
war begun ? 12. How had the Great Schism begun ? 13.
Who was the mightiest prince in France ? 14. What was the
end of Charles YII.? 15. When did he die ?
Chapter XXIY.— 1. What were the faults of Louis XI.?
2. What was his religion ? 3. Who were his favorites ? 4.
What became of his brother ? 5. Who was his great enemy ?
6. When did Louis fall into his own trap ? 7. How did he get
out of it ? 8. Who invaded France ? 9. Where liad Louis
and Edward a meeting ? 10. What war was stirred up against
Duke Charles ? 11. What was the end of Duke Charles ? 12.
Who succeeded him? 13. Whom did Mary of Burgundy
marry ? 14. Who succeeded her ? 15, Whose rights did Louis
buy ? IG. What right had Rene to Provence ? 17. What right
Questions for Examination. 491
had Eene to ISTaples ? 18. Who were the children of Louis
XL? 19. When did he die- ?
Chaptek XXY. — 1. How old was Charles YIII. when he
came to the crown ? 2. Who was the regent ? 3. With whom
did she dispute ? 4. Who was wife to Charles VIIL? 5. How
came Anno of Brittany to marry him ? C. Whom had the
Bretons wislied her to marry ? Y. What was now joined to
France ? 8. What expedition did Charles YIII. make ? 9.
What duchy did the Duke of Orleans claim ? 10. How did
Charles succeed ? 11. What battle did he win ? 12. But
what became of his army in ilTaples ? 13. What good resolu-
tions did Charles make ? 14. But how was ho prevented from
keeping them ? 15. When did Charles YIII, die ?
Chapteb XXYL— 1. Who succeeded Charles YIIL? 2.
What was Louis XIFs right to the throne ? 3. Whom did he
put away from being his wife ? 4. Whom did he marry ? 5.
What expedition did he also make ? 6. What agreement was
made? 7. Was it kept? 8. What battle was lost by the
French ? 9. Who joined in the league of Cambrai ? 10. Who
joined in the Holy League ? 11. What was the Holy League
to do ? 12. What battle was gained by the French ? 13. But
what befel them in Italy? 14. What little kingdom did the
Spaniards seize? 15. What battle was won by the English?
16, What city was taken ? 17. How was peace made ? 18.
When did Louis XII. die ?
ChaptePv XXYII. — 1. What was the right of Francis I. to
the throne? 2. What was his first war? 2. What was his
492 Question'^ for Examination.
first battle ? 4. What agreement did Francis make with the
Pope ? 5. What harm was done by the Concordat of Bologna ?
6. Where did Francis meet Henry YIIL? 7. Who was chosen
emperor? 8. What subject of Francis became a traitor? 9.
In what battle was Francis made prisoner ? 10. What was the
date of the battle of Pavia ? 11. What engagement did Francis
make. 12. What protest did he make ? 13. What did he cry
when he was set free ? 14. How long had he been a prisoner ?
Chaptek XXVIII.— 1. Who marched upon Rome ? 2.
Who made peace ? 3. Who was trying to reform France ? 4.
Who read Calvin's books ? 5. How were the Calvinists perse-
cuted ? 6. What were they called in France ? 1. Where did
Calvin go to live ? 8. Who was Francis's niece ? 9. Whom
did Jane of Navarre marry ? 10. What part of France did
Charles Y. invade ? 11. Who was sent against him ? 12.
When did Charles visit Francis ? 13. Why did Charles Y. and
Henry YIII. invade France ? 14. What city did Henry take ?
15. Why did he give it back ? 16. When did Francis I. die ?
17. What children did he leave ?
Chapter XXIX. — 1. What state was the French court in ?
2. Who tried to improve it ? 3. How were the Huguenots
treated? 4. Who was the queen? 5. Who was Henry's best
general ? 6. What siege did Guise stand ? *7. Whither did
Charles Y. retire ? 8. Who had the empire ? 9. What did
Philip II. have ? 10. Who was his wife ? 11. What town was
besieged ? 12. Who was defending it ? 13. What battle was
fought? 14. AVhat peace was made? 15. What war was
ended by the peace of Cateau Cambresis ? 16. What dukedom
Questions for Examination. 493
had Henry to restore ? 17. To whom was he to marry his
sister ? 18. What happened during tlie wedding feast ? 19.
In what year did Henry II. die ?
Chapter XXX. — 1. How old was Francis II. when he
came to the crown ? Who governed for liim '? 3. WIio was
his wife ? 4. Who was his chief nohle ? 5. Who were the
chief Huguenots ? 6. Wliat plot was made against tlie Bour-
bon brothers ? 7. How^ was the murder prevented ? 8. When
did Francis II. die ? 9. How old was Charles IX.? 10. Who
had influence with Catherine ? 11. What conferences were
held ? 12. What was the massacre of Yassy ? 13. Who were
the two parties.? 14. Who was always head of the Catholics ?
15. Who was always head of the Huguenots ? 16. What was
the end of the Duke of Guise ? 17. Who was accused of the
murder ? 18. Where was Montmorency killed .? 19. Who was
killed at Jarnac ? 20. Who was now head of the Huguenots .?
21. Who w'as the son of Jane of Navarre ? 22. What was the
death of Queen Jane ?
Chapter XXXI — 1. Who were the sons of Catherine de
Medici.'^ 2. Which was reigning? 3. What was her jDlot? 4.
How did she bring the Huguenots together ? 5. What was the
day of their murder ? 6. Who was the chief of the Huguenots
killed at the St. Bartholomew.'' 7. Who were the chief actors
in it .? 8. Who was kept a prisoner .? 9. What people chose
Henry of Anjou for their king ? 10. Who was the favorite of
the Catholics ? 11. When did Charles IX. die ? 12. How did
Henry III. return from Poland ?
Chapter XXXII.— 1. What were the habits of Henry HI .?
494 Questions for Examination,
2. Who took the command of the Huguenots ? 3. How came
Henry of JTavarre to be heh- of France'? 4. Who objected to
his reigning ? 5. What was the object of the League ? 6.
What was the murder at Blois ? Y. How did tlie League try to
revenge itself? 8. Where did the kings meet? 9. Who held
out Paris against them ? 10. Who murdered Henry HI. ? 11.
In what year ?
Chapter XXXIIL— 1. What was Henry lY.'s right to the
crown ? 2. Whom did the Leaguers want for queen ? 3.
What did Henry do to win them over ? 4. LIow long was it
before he could enter Paris ? 5. What did he do to bring about
peace ? 6. What was the edict that tolerated the Calvinists ?
7. Whom did Henry lY. marry ? 8. By whom was he mur-
dered ? 9. In what year ? 10. What do the French call him }
Chapter XXXIV. — 1. How old was Louis XIII. when he
came to the throne? 2. Who was regent ? 3. How was Mary
de Medici ruled.? 4. What was the end of Concini ? 5. What
became of Mary? 6. Who was Louis XIII. 's great minister?
7. Whose power did Eichelieu put down ? S. What was the
last city of the Huguenots ? 9. Who were Louis's two great
generals ? 10. What great wars were going on ? 11. When did
Louis XIIT. die ?
Chapter XXXV. — 1. How old was Louis XIV. when he
came to the crown? 2. Who was regent? 3. Who was min-
ister? 4. Who was his great general? 5. What battle did
Conde win ? 6. What peace was made ? 7. What was the
Fronde ? 8. Why was it so called ? 9. What was the differ-
ence between the English and French Parliaments ? 10. What
Questions for E.vamination. 495
edict v/onld not tlie Parliament register? 11. How many
sieges of Paris were there? 12. Wlio toolc part against Maza-
rin ? 13. Wliat was Conde forced to do ? 14. In whose: army-
did be serve ? 15. Who commanded against him ? IC, What
peace was made ? 17. Whom was Lonis to marry ? ZS. What
was the cliai'acter of Louis XIV."
Chapter XXXVI. — 1. How did Lonis go fd the wars ? 2.
Wliat great war did lie begin ? 3. How were the English
gained to his side.'' 4. Who was his great enemy in Holland ?
5. How did Holland protect itself ? 6. Who took the part of
the Dutch ? 7. Who invaded Germany ? 8. Wliere was
Turenne killed ? 9. Who commanded in his stead } 10. What
town and state did Lonis take? 11. Who was tutor to Louis's
son ? 12. Who was tutor to his grandson ? 13. What great
offence was given by Fenelon } 14. Whom did Louis marry in
his old age ? 15. What law f^'.i he repeal ? 16. What did the
Huafuenots suffer ?
Chapter XXXVIL— 1. How did Louis XIV. lose the Eng-
lish for allies ? 2. W\.om did he try to restore in England ?
3. What defeats did he suffer } 4. What great war began ? 5.
Who claimed the crown of Spain ? 6. Who was the nearest
heir? 7. Whom did Louis put forward ? 8. Whose cause did
the English take up? 9. Who commanded the English army?
10. Who commanded the Austrian army? 11. Who was
Prince Eugene ? 12. Who commanded the French armies ?
13. WherCj were the Fi-ench beaten ? 14. Wliere were they
victorious? 1-5. What ended the war? 16. Who became
King jf Spain ? 17. What were the losses in the Royal
496 Questions for Exami'nation.
Family ? 18. Who alone survived ? 19. How long did Louis
SIV. reign ? 20. In what year did he die ?
Chapter XXXYIII. — 1. How old was Louis XY. when he
came to the throne ? 2. Who was regent ? 3. What was the
state of the court? 4, What great war was going on? 5.
What victories did the French gain ? 6. Who had all the
power in France now ? 7. Who had huilt up that power? 8.
How was it used by Louis XY.? 9. What was the state of the
people? 10. Who were writing against religion? 11. Who
was heir of France ? 12. Whom did the young Dauphin
marry ? 13. When did Louis XY. die ?
Chapter XXXIX. — 1. What were the evils in Louis XYI's
time? 2. How did the queen affront jaeople ? 3. What was
the American war? 4. Who ran away to fight among the
Americans ? 5. What assembly did Louis call together ? 6.
In what year did the States-General meet ? 7. What were
they composed of ? 8. Who threatened the nobles ? 9. What
prison did the mob pull down ? 10. What guard was enrolled ?
11. How did the States-General change its name ? 12. Where
did the mob attack the king and queen ? 13. Where were
they brought back to ? 14. What oath was required of the
clergy ? 15. What happened on the lOtli of August ? 16. In
what year w^as Louis XYI. deposed ?
Chapter XL. — 1. Who professed to govern France ? 2.
Where were the Royal Family shut up ? 3. Who tried to free
them ? 4. What was the effect of all attempts for them ?
Questions for Examination. 49T
5. Where were the emigrant nobles beaten ? 6. Who were the
three men in power ? 7. What was this time called ? S. How
were people put to death ? 9, Who were guillotined in the
Koyal Family? 10. Who were left alive? 11. Who also were
put to death ? 12. Who was enthroned at Notre Dame ? 13.
What became of Marat ? 14. What became of Danton and
Robespierre ? 15. How long had the Reign of Terror lasted ?
16. Who governed then ? 17. What wars were there ? 18.
What great soldier came forward ? 19. Where was Bonaparte's
home ? 20. Wliere did he lead the French ? 21. What road
did he take into Italy ? 22. What part of Italy did he con-
quer ?
Chapter XLI. — 1. What was the government of France
called ? 2. Where did Bonaparte lead his army ? 3. What
battle did he gain there ? 4. But what became of his ships ?
5. Where did he march from Egypt? 6. What battle did he
win in the Holy Land ? 7. What seige did he fail in ? 8.
What called him home? 9. What was he chosen to be ? 10.
What battle did he gain in Italy? 11. What became of his
army in Egypt ? 12. When was the Peace of Amiens made ?
13. How soon was it broken ? 14. Whom did Napoleon put to
death? 15. What rank did he take on himself? 16. What
was the only nation that would not own him ? 17. Where
was his fleet destroyed? 18. Where did Napoleon defeat the
Austrians ? 19. Where did he defeat the Prussians ? 20.
Where did he fight with the Prussians ? 21. What kingdoms
did he give his bi-others ? 22. Who called the English to help
them? 23. What battles opened the way to Yienna ? 24.
Whom did Napoleon marry? 25, What was his last expedi-
tion ? 26. What was the result ? 27. Who joined together
498 Questions for Examination.
against him ? 28. What was he obliged to do ? 29. When did
he abdicate ? oO. Where was he sent ?
Chapter XLII. — 1. Who was made King of France ? 2.
Who survived of the Royal Family ? 3. Who was the Duke of
Angouleme ? 4. Who was his duchess ? 5. When did Napo-
leon escape from Elba ? 6. How was he received ? 7. Where
did Louis XYIII. flee ? 8. Who were the allies ? 9. Which
were ready first ? 10. When was the battle of Waterloo ? 11.
Who were engaged in it ? 12. To whom did Napoleon sur-
render ? 13. Where was he confined ? 14. When did he die ?
15. What became of his son ? 16. Which of his marshals was
put to death ? 17. Who was his great mhiister ? 18. What
was the saying about the Bourbons ? 19. What did Louis
grant the people ? 20. What murder took place in his time ?
21. When did Louis XVIII. die ?
Chapter XLIII.—l. Who was the heir of Louis XYIII.?
2. By whom was he guided? 3, What made people discon-
tented ? 4. With whom was the battle of Navarhio fought ?
5. What new khigdom arose ? 6. Why was there an expedi-
tion to Algiers? 7. What edict of the king offended the
French ? 8. What happened on the three days of July ? 9.
In what year? 10. What became of Charles X.? 11. Who is
his heir ? 12. Who was made king in his stead ? 13. Whose
son was Louis Philippe } 14. From whom was he descended ?
15. What was he to be called ? 16. How was his power
limited ?
Chapter XLIV.— 1. What improvements took place in
Questions for Examination. 499
France ? 2. Where was a settlement made ? 8. Who was the
Arab chieftain ? 4. In what islands were settlements made ?
5. What honors were done to Napoleon ? 6. What parties
were there in France ? 7. What was the badge of the moder-
ate ? 8. What was the badge of the violent ? 9. What was
the badge of the Legitimists ? 10. What was the conspiracy
against Lonis Philippe ? 11. How did he lose his eldest son ?
12. What were the great discontents ? 13. How was Louis
Philippe dethroned ? 14. In what year ? 15. What became of
Louis Philippe ?
Chaptek XLV. — 1. Who tried to bring in order ? 2. What
did the Republicans want ? 3. What were their watchwords ?
4. What were barricades ? 5. What was the great day of
barricades ? 6. Who was then killed ? 7. Who put down the
Red Republicans ? 8. Whose cause did the French support in
Italy? 9. Who were the live parties in France? 10. What
did the Red Republicans want? 11. What did the moderate
ones want ? 12. What did the Bonapartists want ? 13. What
did the Orleanists want ? 14. What did the Legitimists want .''
15. Who was made President at last ? 16. What was the coup
d'etat ?
Chapter XLYI. — 1. When did the Second Empire begin ?
2. What relation was the second emperor to the first ? 3.
Whom did he marry ? 4. How did he alter Paris ? 5. In what
war did the English and French become allies ? 6. What were
the battles of the Crimean war? 7. To what war in Italy did
the French assent? 8. What were the battles before ? 9.
Who was made King of Italy ? 10. Who was made Emperor
of Mexico? 11. Why did the French give him up? 12. What
became of Maximilian ? 13. What vote was asked by the
500 Questions for Examination.
emperor ? 14. What was the dispute with Prussia ? 15.
When did the Prussian war begin ?
Chapter XLYII. — 1. Where was the campaign in tlie war
between France and Prussia ? 2. Wliat was the great battle ?
3. What became of the emperor ? 4. What became of the
empress ? 5. What cities were besieged ? 6. How long did
the siege of Paris last? 7. How were the wounded nursed?
8. On what terms was peace made? 9. What provinces were
given up ?
Chaptp:r XLVni. — 1. How did the Eetl Republicans break
out ? 2. What did" they call their government ? 3. Where
was the real government ? 4. How was Paris besieged ? 5.
Who were mui-dered ? 6. What mischief was done ? 7. How
was it a\^enged ? 8. Wiio are the parties in France ? 9. What
iDlan was made? 10. What was Henry's answer? 11. Who
alone accepted it? 12. How is France governed now ?
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